http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050607Z.shtml
With New Clout, Antiwar Groups Push Democrats
By Michael Luo
The New York Times
Sunday 06 May 2007
Washington - Every morning, representatives from a cluster of antiwar
groups gather for a conference call with Democratic leadership staff members
in the House and the Senate.
Shortly after, in a cramped meeting room here, they convene for a call
with organizers across the country. They hash out plans for rallies. They
sketch out talking points for "rapid response" news conferences. They
discuss polls they have conducted in several dozen crucial Congressional
districts and states across the country.
Over the last four months, the Iraq deliberations in Congress have
lurched from a purely symbolic resolution rebuking the president's strategy
to timetables for the withdrawal of American troops. Behind the scenes, an
elaborate political operation, organized by a coalition of antiwar groups
and fine-tuned to wrestle members of Congress into place one by one, has
helped nudge the debate forward.
But there are tensions in the relationship between the groups, which
banded together earlier this year under the umbrella of Americans Against
Escalation in Iraq, and the Democratic leadership. The fissures could be
magnified in coming weeks as the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California,
and the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, struggle to cobble
together a strategy after President Bush's veto of the $124 billion Iraq
spending bill that tied the money to a timetable for withdrawal.
On Thursday, leaders of the liberal group MoveOn.org, including Tom
Matzzie, the group's Washington director who also serves as the campaign
manager for the coalition, sent a harshly worded warning to the Democratic
leadership.
"In the past few days, we have seen what appear to be trial balloons
signaling a significant weakening of the Democratic position," the letter
read. "On this, we want to be perfectly clear: if Democrats appear to
capitulate to Bush - passing a bill without measures to end the war - the
unity Democrats have enjoyed and Democratic leadership has so expertly
built, will immediately disappear."
The letter went on to say that if Democrats passed a bill "without a
timeline and with all five months of funding," they would essentially be
endorsing a "war without end." MoveOn, it said, "will move to a position of
opposition."
The antiwar coalition combines the online mobilization capabilities of
MoveOn with the old-school political muscle of organized labor. They have
been working in tandem with Democratic leadership in both the House and the
Senate on a systematic strategy to unify Democrats, divide Republicans and
isolate the president.
The alliance, including MoveOn, chose to stick with Ms. Pelosi as she
ushered through a war financing bill that included a timeline for
withdrawal, but many peace advocates called the measure too timid. Some
critics accused the alliance of becoming too cozy with the Democratic
leadership and selling out the cause.
"There's a dividing line between those groups who feel the most
important thing is to be clear on bringing the troops home as soon as
possible, and the groups that feel that unity within the Democratic Party is
most important and the most important thing is for the Democrats to win the
White House," said Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of Code Pink, an antiwar
group that is not part of the alliance. "So the groups who feel the most
important thing is to win the White House would naturally be more inclined
to listening to Speaker Nancy Pelosi when she says the only way we can get a
vote through is if we water it down."
Many of the major players in Americans Against Escalation in Iraq earned
their stripes not from sit-ins, marches and other acts of civil disobedience
but as Democratic operatives on Capitol Hill and in political campaigns. The
sophisticated political operation they have built is a testament to how far
the antiwar movement has come since the Vietnam era.
But Tom Andrews, a former Democratic congressman from Maine and the
national director of Win Without War, a member of the coalition, said there
existed a "healthy tension" between working closely with Democratic
lawmakers on Capitol Hill, many of whom were former colleagues and friends,
and continuing to prod them to end the war.
"Our constituency is the people across this country who want to shut
this war down," Mr. Andrews said. "It's not the Democratic Party."
Mr. Matzzie underscored the coalition's approach to a roomful of members
on Thursday at the outset of a planning retreat at the headquarters of the
Service Employees International Union here.
"The principle under which we've been operating is more like a political
campaign," Mr. Matzzie said. "The central strategy is creating that toxic
environment for people who want to continue this debacle."
The discussion at the retreat mirrored that of planning meetings for
traditional political campaigns, with presentations on polling, strategy and
field operations.
"It's no different than if you went over to the offices of Clinton for
President, Obama for President, Giuliani for President," said Brad
Woodhouse, president of Americans United for Change, which has roots in
organized labor and came out of the legislative battle over social security
in 2005. The coalition, which has raised $7.1 million since January, has
concentrated its activities on 57 House districts and senators in nine
states, places where they believe Republican lawmakers face tough races in
2008 or have shown signs of wavering in their support for the president.
The service employees' union has mobilized its phone bank in New York
City and asked local leaders to call members of Congress. Leaders of the
union, long closely allied with liberal lawmakers, helped assuage many
progressives who were uneasy about voting for the war-financing bill,
fearing criticism from the left.
The National Security Network, a collection of liberal-leaning military
and foreign policy experts headed by Rand Beers, former national security
adviser to the presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry, has deployed
former generals and officials to persuade individual lawmakers.
The coalition's influence comes from its connections on Capitol Hill and
political shrewdness, as well as its grass-roots reach. "The whole movement
has updated themselves to be where campaign-style politics are generally,"
said Stephanie Cutter, a Democratic strategist. "They're just incredibly
savvy, tactically and politically. They know how to use the news cycle."
Most important for lawmakers, said Mr. Andrews, the former congressman
from Maine, the coalition members are committed to using their resources to
changing the political climate in their districts, which gives them
credibility on Capitol Hill.
"We want members of Congress to do the right thing and do very well as a
result," he said. "We're not just there asking them to do the right thing
without fully recognizing the task we have on hand."
Rodell Mollineau, a spokesman for Mr. Reid's office, said the coalition
amplifies what Democrats are trying to do in Washington to end the war.
"It helps us reverberate a unified message outside the Beltway," he
said. "These groups give voice to a message we're trying to get outside."
One of the coalition's strengths is its diversity, bringing to together
groups like MoveOn.org and organized labor on one end and former Iraq
veterans in the group Votevets.org on the other, members said. But that
diversity can also create some tense moments, as each of the groups have
different constituencies and some of the groups are more invested in the
Democratic Party than others.
But the organizations came together based on a sense of pragmatism, said
Mr. Woodhouse, of Americans United for Change, "that we're better fighting
together than fighting apart."
After the president's veto this week, the coalition organized 358
rallies and more than 20 news conferences across the country. Organizers had
met with leadership staff members the week before to coordinate.
On Friday, in a daily conference call, Tara McGuinness, the coalition's
deputy campaign manager, told members that leadership aides had expressed
gratitude for the work, saying it had helped bolster members of their
caucus.
Ms. McGuiness also told them that she had received assurances from
leadership staff members that all options were still being considered for
the new version of the war spending bill.
"The latest word from them is they are talking more and more about a
short-leash option," she said, referring to a plan in the House that would
finance the war for only about three more months and require the
administration to report back on progress being made by the Iraqi
government. Congress would then vote again on the rest of the money
requested by Mr. Bush.
Members of the Senate appear to be cool to the idea, but it has currency
among some liberal advocates and members of the coalition.
Mr. Matzzie, of MoveOn, was clear about the stakes in the coming weeks,
saying his group was only getting started. He emphasized that the next
emergency spending bill must be one "to end the war."
"This is act one of a three-act play," he said. "Act two will be the
summer. During the summer, our job is to create a firestorm of opposition."
***
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