Following is my beloved spouse’s account of events. She doesn't have an account, so I agreed to let her post under my name.
I attended a fundraising luncheon on Sept. 13, hosted by Representative Keith Ellison featuring Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Hoyer talked about the importance of fundraising to build a larger Democratic majority in 2008. I managed to squeeze my way in between the dozen or so lobbyists and ask "(D)o the Democrats plan to continue introducing appropriations bills to fund the war and if so, how do you expect to build a larger majority given the clear sentiment the public expressed against the war in the 2006 election?"
More on that conversation is below the fold.
He replied that the Dems DO intend to continue introducing appropriations bills because "we aren’t going to strand the troops in the field," then complained about not having the votes in the Senate, and other such blather. (It’s always someone else’s problem, isn’t it?) He went on to note – in an extremely condescending tone – that "we did pass a Defense budget that didn’t contain war funding and the President vetoed that – I don’t know if you were aware of that." (Had Keith not already become obviously uncomfortable, I was tempted to retort "I was aware of that because you cowards don’t include war funding in the Defense bill anyway – you fund via a supplemental, like it’s a surprise every year when the war budget turns up.")
Hoyer never really did answer how he planned to expand Democratic numbers while funding the war, but did comment that "I know the base is mad at us – and I’m mad at the base." When he tossed that off, I inquired "Because.....?" He basically said the base has unrealistic expectations in terms of ending the war, and the Dems can’t de-fund it because doing so would anger the moderates they need to win more seats in ’08. (I must be delusional in thinking that the 70% of the public opposed to the war includes some independents – that’s obviously not the thinking in Hoyer-land).
As he was on his way out the door he stopped again & rattled off something about how poor Nancy Pelosi has "Cindy Sheehan and Code Pink camped out in her driveway," and Cindy Sheehan is actually challenging ‘Nancy’ in a primary. (This apparently offends his beltway sensibilities). The obvious implication was that I must be some sort of leftwing loon to be pestering him about the war.
Should I have been grateful for his relative honesty?