YOUR ASSIGNMENT, SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT...

By: Thomas McKelvey Cleaver

The House of Representatives and the Senate went on two weeks of Spring Break this past Friday, March 18.

I was going to suggest this weekend that you be sure to find out where your Congressman is meeting with his or her constituents, and be sure to drop by and ask some real questions about the real issues we face today.

That might not be so easy to do. It turns out that your assignment, should you accept it, may well be finding a way to sneak into the meeting your representative - if they're a Republican - has decided to hold as they take a page from the President's playbook.

At his press conference this last Wednesday, Bubble Boy said he thought the Congress Critters should go back to their districts and "talk to their constituents not only about the problem, but about solutions. I urge members to start talking about how we're going to permanently fix Social Security."

As is usual, the President acts as if he never heard the word "hypocrisy." So far, Bush hasn't talked to his constituents about Social Security outside of crowds of pre-screened Republican supporters of privatization who are willing to take direction on what to say from White House advance men in a performance so obvious even the mainstream media have taken to commenting on it unfavorably in their reporting of the Bamboozlepalooza Tour. So his advice to lawmakers is that they should have discussions with voters but he shouldn't?

As usual, actions speak louder than words, and the Best CongressCritters Money Can Buy have decided to follow his example, rather than his advice. Having had some disastrous public meetings where the dialogue wasn't scripted in advance when they went home in February, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Deborah Pryce (R-Oh) and other Republican leaders are urging Congressional Republicans to hold low-profile events to avoid "March Madness." The plan is for them to stop by newspaper editorial boards, speak at Rotary Club lunches and Chamber of Commerce meetings, and other local business groups - preach to the Kool-Aid drinkers, in other words. With an invitation-only/members-only format, "there isn't an opportunity for it to disintegrate into something that's less desirable," as Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference put it.

Since it would be an unlikely happenstance that anyone reading this would be a member of any of those organizations where they can get "face time" with their Critter, perhaps those of you who find out about these meetings might want to gather outside and let the rest of the world know they're happening. You might want to talk to the local media who will be dropping by (and if they don't know about the meeting, be sure to be polite and invite them over), and raise the questions that Mr./Ms. Critter sure as hell won't be bringing up inside.

Might I suggest you talk about the "nuclear option" and the coming confirmation fights over the Terrible Ten? That's the ten judicial nominations turned down in the last Congress that the President has renominated as part of his "mandate" to take the country back to 1896.

The first one up is going to be William G. Myers III, and he's an easy target, even for the reasonable Republicans. HE LIED TO THEM in his confirmation hearings last year, and again when he testified on March 1. Just in case you aren't familiar with the Rollins Case and Myers' involvement, go here (PUT IN LINK TO MY "NUCLEAR OPTION" ARTICLE HERE). Amazingly, on a 10-8 party-line vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee sent the nomination on to the full Senate for confirmation. This despite comments such as that of Senator Charles Shumer (D-NY) that "the President keeps recycling nominees like William Myers, whose words and deeds make him the most anti-environmental nominee we have ever seen." Every major environmental organization, along with civil rights, labor and Native American groups oppose Myers' nomination.

Senators of both parties traditionally dislike being lied to by nominees, especially when the lie is committed under oath, when it becomes perjury. Your Republican Senator may just surprise me and hold real "constituent meetings" during the break. If so, go and politely ask them if they intend to confirm a man to a lifetime position as a Federal Appeals Court Judge who is a known perjurer - and remind them that the perjury was committed against that august body they're a member of, the United States Senate. The Kool-Aid drinkers are going to do whatever they're ordered to, but there are responsible Republicans - not to mention most Democrats - who may not be aware of this information (feel free to copy/paste the relevant information from my article into a polite e-mail to your Senator, to be sure they "get the message"). Give them a "non-partisan" reason to protect their own house, and they just might see the light.

Bring up the "nuclear option," and remind the Republicans that the day will come again when they are the minority party (sooner rather than later, I fervently pray) and that they may well live to rue the day they let short-term advantage short circuit long-term reality.

Even such a moron as Mitch McConnell appears to have gotten the message. It's reported that McConnell is reluctant to take this step because he's aware of the long-term risk. As Majority Whip, McConnell's opinion counts and many of his fellow members would be hesitant to proceed on something this important without his approval.

It's now rumored in far-right circles that McConnell has argued in closed-door meetings that there's not a sufficient public clamor for the change. The Righties plan to raise grass-roots anger at Democratic filibusters, but you have a chance these next two weeks to let your Senator know that whoever's chanting outside their door is not "the voice of the people."

At present, there are indications that Senators McCain, Hagel, Chafee, Snowe, Collins, and Specter (we should call them the Sane Republican Caucus) are not ready to support the "nuclear option," even though as Judiciary Committee Chairman Spector has led the charge to get committee approval of the Myers nomination. This potentially leaves the thugs short of a majority.

It is CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT that you make your views known to your Senator during this recess, because Republicans close to the Senate leadership plan to force the issue when the Senate returns next month by voting to end filibusters, most likely in connection with the Myers nomination. If Senators have heard about his testimony in last year's hearings, they just might get hinky over a vote for such a scummy nominee. Remember: HE'S A PERJURER!! HE LIED TO THE SENATE!!!

This is of crucial importance, folks! The other side wants to get this over now, so the rules-change fight won't smear a Supreme Court candidate. There hasn't been a Supreme Court vacancy in 10 years, but with the current situation on the court we are going to see a Chief Justice nomination and at least two other Associate Justice nominations before 2008. The Right is looking to change the court as decisively for the next 40 years as happened with Roosevelt's nominations in 1937-40, when the Court was dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th Century.

The Right knows the importance of this fight. Richard Lessner, Executive Director of the American Conservative Union, put it clearly: "As we get closer to an anticipated opening on the Supreme Court, that creates a sense of urgency to invoke [the rules change] sooner rather than later, so we put that obstacle behind us as we move into a potential Supreme Court battle. If we're going to have a battle over a Supreme Court nominee, let's not also have a simultaneous fight over Senate rules." This past week Ed Meese, Reagan's Attorney General (and a far-far-right Republican asshole I have been at war with since 1967 when he was Alameda County District Attorney) and C. Boyden Gray - George H. W. Bush's White House counsel - said they want the Senate to move ahead with the scheme, and that incompetent moron George Will has announced that he's changed his mind on the subject after advising against the "nuclear option" two weeks ago.

NO!!

Let's make them do it out in the open, where everyone can see it and see what a difference it makes. If the "nuclear option" can be defeated next month by making Senators queasy over supporting a perjuring scumbag like Myers, it's going to be more difficult for them to do it later, because (hopefully) by then the public will be educated to the fact that this isn't some "arcane rule change" that has no effect on their lives.

Folks, we are talking about the country I will be living in for the rest of my life, and the world that my young comrade here at That's Another Fine Mess will - at a minimum - live in till he qualifies for Social Security (assuming we win that fight and it's still there for him). We are talking about The Immediately-Identifiable Future. Your life.

These two weeks are crucial. Make your voice heard. Call your Senator's local office in your state. Send an e-mail. Write a letter. Find out about any meetings and attend them - ask questions. Make absolutely certain that they can't say "I didn't know." Be like Jack Webb - "just the facts." We can win on "just the facts."

Act as if your life depends on it.

Because it does.