PDA MA05 Chapter Meets With Tsongas
By Michael Gilbreath, PDA MA05 Congressional District Point Person
March 8, 2008, Lowell, MA
On February 20, PDA met with Congresswoman Niki Tsongas of the Massachusetts 5th Congressional district. The congresswoman was hosting a Town Hall meeting to report to the district on her recent trip to Iraq and Afghanistan and on legislation she plans to introduce to initiate a withdrawal of U.S. troops.
In response to repeated requests from the local PDA chapter, Tsongas met with the PDA delegation at the Acton-Boxborough High School prior to the forum, and we addressed the following issues:
The War in Iraq: We pressed her to sign on to the Pledge For Peace campaign pointing out the importance of Congress exercising its “power of the purse” to actually force an end to the war. With eight of the 10 Massachusetts members of the House delegation already supporting the pledge, we argued that this would place her squarely in step with her colleagues and the voters of her district. Tsongas responded by explaining that to date she has supported only those congressional resolutions that have included a timetable for withdrawal, and she has voted against those without one. She indicated that she is committed to this position and will continue to vote accordingly. In something of a surprise move, during the public forum she unveiled legislation that she will be introducing in the current session of Congress that would initiate re-deployment of troops out of Iraq over a six month period, leaving behind only sufficient forces to protect the U.S. embassy.
Domestic Spying & FISA: We described our concerns about the Bush administration's unconstitutional domestic spying program and the upcoming vote on the FISA reauthorization. We specifically asked her to join Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank and Rep. James McGovern and declare her opposition to any renewal legislation that includes retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies that cooperated with the administration. She stated unequivocally that she would oppose any reauthorization that includes immunity.
Impeachment: We expressed in the strongest terms our belief that it is long past time to initiate impeachment actions against Cheney and Bush, and for Congress to finally take its obligation to protect the Constitution seriously. We pressed the congresswoman to sign on to Rep. Wexler's letter to Rep. Conyer's, House Judiciary Committee Chairman, asking him to initiate hearings into impeachment. Unfortunately, the congresswoman was firm in her opposition to pursuing impeachment. She expressed the strong feeling that the most important step to take at this time would be electing a Democratic president and increasing the party's margin in the House and Senate. She also repeated the standard positions of Rep. Pelosi and others that impeachment would take time away from other legislation and serve as a rallying point for Republicans. We pointed out that spending an entire day on the question of steroids in baseball seemed to call into question the sincerity of those who oppose impeachment on the grounds that there were more important things to do. She agreed that that was problematic, but did not alter her position.
I think all of us present felt that the congresswoman listened with genuine interest and an open mind to most of what we had to say. She and her staff dealt with us in a respectful and forthright manner, and clearly her positions on FISA and Iraq appear to be in sync with PDA. At the beginning of the meeting we had pointed out to her that in the 5th District, PDA represents a significant body of opinion, and “feet on the ground” to support candidates. As we left we repeated our desire to support her where we are in agreement, and our readiness to support other Democrats in primaries if we thought it necessary. Going forward, we will watch to see the exact nature of her Iraq legislation, and her subsequent voting record on Iraq and other issues of importance to PDA including impeachment and single payer healthcare.
For more information about PDA MA05 contact
Michael Gilbreath.
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