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POLITICS-US: Key Democrat Pressured to Cut War Funding
By Aaron Glantz
SAN FRANCISCO, Mar 21 (IPS) - Peace activists entered their 10th day
camped outside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco home Wednesday,
the latest in an almost daily barrage of demonstrations, vigils and local
government votes designed to convince Pelosi to refuse President George W.
Bush's 100-billion-dollar war funding request.
The speaker says she will support the request with conditions.
Pelosi originally voted against the war four years ago and says she wants
it to end. But that rhetoric is not enough for liberal San Franciscans,
including elected officials like City Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who spoke
at a rally in front of her office Monday.
"I did not and will not accept the excuses of even the most pragmatic,
prudent, or progressive sounding representative in Congress in explaining
to us that this war abroad is such a quagmire that there is no reason no
we can pull out," Mirkarimi told a crowd of hundreds.
"They should be unelected," he said. "They should be taken out of office."
As Mirkarimi spoke, 11 activists - including a San Francisco mother whose
son served 3 tours in Iraq - were arrested as they staged a sit-in in
Pelosi's office. Across the city, 57 protesters were arrested, many
blocking traffic while pretending to die on Market Street, the city's main
drag.
Demonstrators said Pelosi, who represents the city in the House of
Representatives, is out of line with a majority of her constituents. Last
November, city voters approved by 58 percent a measure calling for the
impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
"Nancy Pelosi some time ago made a conscious decision that she was going
to stop representing San Francisco and start trying to be a national
figure," said Tim Redmond, the editor of the city's progressive Bay
Guardian news weekly.
The speaker of the House disagrees and released a statement to
demonstrators outside her office "thanking" them for their "opposition to
the war in Iraq."
"I agree that the war must end and am working within Congress to achieve
that goal," she said.
Still, Redmond believes it will be difficult for locals to change the
speaker's mind on the question of war funding.
"When she began moving towards becoming speaker of the House, she left
behind San Francisco values and went with a more mainstream approach that
will help her court Democrats in swing districts," he added.
While a liberal by national standards, Pelosi has staked out a more
centrist position on Iraq than other Congresspersons from the San
Francisco Bay area. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who represents Oakland, and
Lynn Woolsey, who represents the suburbs north of San Francisco, have
introduced legislation requiring all U.S. troops to leave Iraq within six
months.
The bill, HR 508, has 49 co-sponsors, including most members of the Bay
Area's Congressional delegation. As speaker, Pelosi has buried the bill in
the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, and Border
Security.
Redmond is heartened, however, by a vote by the local Democratic Party
Central Committee urging Congress to revoke President Bush's authority to
wage war in Iraq and cut off all funding for the war - except as
"necessary to provide for the safe and orderly withdrawal" of the troops.
Howard Wallace, the vice president of the San Francisco Labour Council,
part of the national union confederation AFL-CIO, says Pelosi fought the
measure, but couldn't stop it from passing.
"We turned out a crowd," he said, "and everyone was on our side. We had
some very good people on the committee and we could see things shifting
before our eyes, and then we found out that they had a substitute
motion - and that was to water down the whole bill. They put in some
glittering generalities that said really nothing and it was aimed at just
getting us out of the way," he said.
"It didn't say anything," Wallace said. "It was insider talk, which is
always full of stuff like that, and we can't take that kind of crap
anymore."
In the end, almost all of San Francisco's city supervisors and state
legislators voted for the antiwar measure. A few abstained. Pelosi's
representative was the only central committee member to vote no.
"All this adds up and puts pressure on her and in a sense embarrasses
her," said Bay Guardian editor Tim Redomond. "It says 'look, you're not
making your constituents happy'. It also in a way gives her political
cover because when she's in Washington she can say: 'Look at my
constituents. My voters are way to the left of me.' It lets her push that
edge a little more if she wants to."
If Pelosi doesn't respond to community pressure, Redmond says, a primary
challenge or third party candidacy is possible. Such a challenger would
likely lose, he says, put would serve to further increase pressure on the
House speaker.
(END/2007)
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