If you’ve ever spent quality time trying to move an agenda through Congress, you know that moving an agenda isn’t just about lobbying individual Members. You need a "champion" for your issue. The champion introduces your bill. The champion recruits other offices to sign up. The champion introduces an amendment that carries the same idea…
It’s bad enough that we lost progressive champions like Russ Feingold, and that the leadership and committees of the House will be taken over by advocates of domestic austerity and endless war. In addition, the airwaves and print media will now be filled with pundits saying that the lesson of the election is that Obama…
You can’t follow U.S. print media coverage of the war in Afghanistan for any length of time without running into some variation of the following assertion: "The Taliban Will Never Negotiate, As Long As They Think They’re Winning." No serious effort is usually made to substantiate this claim, which is asserted as if it…
"Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them" was former non-Senator Al Franken’s 2003 examination of the lies and distortions of right-wing pundits and politicians. Such a book, if it were written today, should certainly include a fair and balanced look at some of the lying liars still running our foreign policy: in particular, at…
Tonight, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on the Pentagon’s request for $33 billion for open-ended war and occupation in Afghanistan. While press reports suggest that when the dust settles, the Pentagon will have the war money, it’s likely that a record number of Representatives will go on the record in opposition to…
Today eighteen Senators voted for Senator Feingold’s amendment to the war supplemental requiring the President to establish a timetable for the redeployment of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan. This could be a turning point in U.S. policy on the war in Afghanistan. With this vote, the number of Senators on the record in support of…
On Tuesday, Rep. Michael Honda signed his name to legislation put forward by Sen. Russ Feingold, Rep. Jim McGovern and Rep. Walter Jones that would require the President to establish a timetable for the redeployment of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. This is potentially a bellwether event, because Rep. Honda – together with Rep. Grijalva, who…
Yesterday, Senator Russ Feingold, Representative Jim McGovern, and Representative Walter Jones announced the introduction of legislation that – if it attracts enough support – could end the U.S. military occupation of Afghanistan, and bring the troops home. The key idea of the bill is straightforward. By January 1 – or within 3 months of the…
Senator Feingold, Representative McGovern and Representative Walter Jones have announced the introduction of legislation that would require the President to establish a timetable for the redeployment of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. In the Senate, S. 3197; in the House, H.R. 5015. Feingold’s announcement is here. The bill can be read here. You can ask your…
On Monday, Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin broke a Beltway taboo: he called for a public timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, in an interview with the Appleton, Wisconsin Post-Crescent. My colleague Megan Iorio has excerpted highlights from the interview relating to Afghanistan: Already, Feingold’s call for a timetable for withdrawal is…