Washblog

Met with Baird and it was off-the-record

I just got out of a meeting with Rep. Brian Baird and some local Democratic officials that, as you can imagine, focussed almost totally on Iraq. Since it was off the record, I can't tell you anything he said, but I feel comfortable giving you my new impression of this entire episode.

My biggest impression is that he seems totally willing to lose the next election on this issue, which was contrary to what I went into the meeting thinking. I went in assuming he was taking as some level a political position, trying to find a rhetorical middle ground.

My only wish now is that the meeting was on the record.

Update [2007-8-30 18:59:40 by emmettoconnell]: Baird did go on the record with Slog.

< Undemocratic nature of PCO elections and how it could impact the state central committee | How Forced Mail Voting Affects Voter Turnout >
Display: Sort:
I'm glad to hear that he's not doing this for political reasons, but that he is standing up for what he believes.  Even though I don't agree with his position completely, I don't know everything that he does and I'm not in the position that he is in.  I can respect someone who stands up for what they believe to be true, even if it creates a threat to their reelection.

by chadlupkes on Thu Aug 30, 2007 at 01:19:04 PM PST

* 1 none 0 *


What do you mean "off the record"? A congressman can't dictate to you that you can't repeat his statements! The only reason news reporters agree to such absurd "rules" is that they have to do so in order to continue to have access ... that allows them to write what was said but without attribution. But that has nothing at all to do with what a private citizen can do.

by wmorrow1 on Thu Aug 30, 2007 at 01:21:23 PM PST

* 2 none 0 *


  • well yeah... by emmettoconnell, 08/30/2007 01:23:22 PM PST (none / 0)
  not the same thing exactly.  So while it could be said that Rep. Brian Baird is willing to pay a political price for his changed position on Iraq, he doesn't have to pay for it with his life.

   I pray that my son-in-law doesn't have to pay for it with his life when he ships out to Iraq for a second time in October......

   And I do wish Brian Baird sleepless nights as we will have to be sure...

On the Surge in Iraq "--we have set the bar so low it's buried in the sand at this point." - Barack Obama

by Lietta Ruger on Thu Aug 30, 2007 at 01:49:50 PM PST

* 4 none 0 *


"WHO ARE YOU AND
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH BRIAN BAIRD?"

by dinazina on Thu Aug 30, 2007 at 02:54:46 PM PST

* 5 none 0 *


"I've been frustrated with the eagerness of both sides to politicize this war."

When you have 2, two, 1+1, people, you have politics. Always have. Always will.

One of the first bullshit lies of the fascists is that something isn't policital ...

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

Grow the fuck up.

EVERYTHING takes time, takes money, and ALL decisions about time and money are political.

When the powerful say 'this isn't political' they are framing things such that their language and their thoughts and their actions are dirty dirty dirty meanie 'political', their thoughts, actions and language is some kind of television commerical / disney cartoon fake pure.

WAR is the MOST political thing we as fucking stupid humans do.

So, brian baird,

is this temporary stupidity? temporary incomptence? temporary corruption? or, a mix of all three?

we ALL make mistakes, but

using fascist language and thoughts to justify fascist actions = decades of losing to the fascists. PERIOD.

yawn ... I'm not going to bother detailing the laundry list of political crimes for this war that even fucking morons know,

so Brian, you gonna dig in your heels with mr. 25%?

for your cushy ass job with its permanent pension and health care, its a good thing that the political process is so freaking corrupt, cuz there are surely Democrats in your neck of the woods who got better things to do than get in bed with the bushies, and would make better servants of the public good than servants of the bechtel / halliburton good.

is there something in the water in this state?  we seem to have no lack of 'Democrats' who use fascist language to portray their sell out-ism.

rmm.

http://www.liemail.com/BambooGrassroots.html

by rmdSeaBos on Thu Aug 30, 2007 at 09:23:59 PM PST

* 6 none 0 *


emmett,

Thanks for the update about the Slog interview. In one of the more telling statements from Baird he refers to Petraeus as some "recent addition" to the equation:

"I'm going to listen to what Gen. David Patraeus, the best mind in counterinsurgency, and [U.S. Ambassador Ryan] Crocker have to say. I am going to listen to these people. And by the way, these are good people. These are not the same people who have been failing in Iraq all along. And just telling us what we want to hear."

I guess Rep. Baird didn't have a score card back in 2004 when Petraeus was in charge of training the new Iraqi security forces. Here is what Petraeus was saying back then:

"Now, however, 18 months after entering Iraq, I see tangible progress...." "...Today approximately 164,000 Iraqi police and soldiers (of which about 100,000 are trained and equipped) and an additional 74,000 facility protection forces are performing a wide variety of security missions. Equipment is being delivered. Training is on track and increasing in capacity. Infrastructure is being repaired. Command and control structures and institutions are being reestablished...""...Momentum has gathered in recent months. With strong Iraqi leaders out front and with continued coalition -- and now NATO -- support, this trend will continue. It will not be easy, but few worthwhile things are."

Yep. That would be the same Gen. Petraeus that Baird believes is not one of the, "same people who have been failing in Iraq all along. And just telling us what we want to hear." The same Gen. Petraeus who intercepted the recent National Intelligence Estimate to "revamp" the conclusions of the independent Intelligence sources with regard to the actual status of military progress.

Damn that has to be some fine Kool-Aid.

Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue

by The Left Shue on Thu Aug 30, 2007 at 10:00:43 PM PST

* 8 none 0 *


Article in Washington Post today.  So is that it, Brian Baird - you were one of those lawmakers 'slimed in the Green Zone'?

Lawmakers Describe 'Being Slimed in the Green Zone'

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 31, 2007; Page A13

The sheets of paper seemed to be everywhere the lawmakers went in the Green Zone, distributed to Iraqi officials, U.S. officials and uniformed military of no particular rank. So when Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) asked a soldier last weekend just what he was holding, the congressman was taken aback to find out.

In the soldier's hand was a thumbnail biography, distributed before each of the congressmen's meetings in Baghdad, which let meeting participants such as that soldier know where each of the lawmakers stands on the war. "Moran on Iraq policy," read one section, going on to cite some the congressman's most incendiary statements, such as, "This has been the worst foreign policy fiasco in American history."

The bio of Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.) -- "TAU (rhymes with 'now')-sher," the bio helpfully relates -- was no less pointed, even if she once supported the war and has taken heat from liberal Bay Area constituents who remain wary of her position. "Our forces are caught in the middle of an escalating sectarian conflict in Iraq, with no end in sight," the bio quotes.

"This is beyond parsing. This is being slimed in the Green Zone," Tauscher said of her bio.

More than two dozen House members and senators have used the August recess to travel to Iraq in the hope of getting a firsthand view of the war ahead of commanding Gen. David H. Petraeus's progress report in two weeks on Capitol Hill. But it appears that the trips have been as much about Iraqi and U.S. officials sizing up Congress as the members of Congress sizing up the war.

Brief, choreographed and carefully controlled, the codels (short for congressional delegations) often have showed only what the Pentagon and the Bush administration have wanted the lawmakers to see. At one point, as Moran, Tauscher and Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.) were heading to lunch in the fortified Green Zone, an American urgently tried to get their attention, apparently to voice concerns about the war effort, the participants said. Security whisked the man away before he could make his point.

Tauscher called it "the Green Zone fog."

"Spin City," Moran grumbled. "The Iraqis and the Americans were all singing from the same song sheet, and it was deliberately manipulated."