We Did Good!

Last week the House of Representatives voted on the McGovern bill, which required a mandatory withdrawal from Iraq by early 2008. It's the strongest bill that's come to the floor of this Congress yet, and your representative, Rep. Renzi, did the wrong thing and voted against it.

Most Democrats—including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Barbara Lee—voted for it. Unfortunately, a few dozen Democrats voted against it—including Rep. Steny Hoyer, the second ranking Democrat in Congress. Since Congressman Hoyer's vote can influence the way a lot of other representatives vote, it was a big failure of leadership.

It's time that Rep. Hoyer got the message: The American people want a quick and responsible end to the occupation in Iraq.

The McGovern bill got 171 votes in Congress. That's not enough to pass, but there is good news here. A year—or even a month—ago we wouldn't have imagined that so many members of Congress would vote to mandate a swift exit from Iraq.

In fact, right before the vote happened we were told to expect only about 90 votes for it. Your calls helped almost double what was expected. This vote was a huge sign of progress, but there's a lot more work to do.

While Speaker Pelosi and Caucus Chair Rahm Emanuel voted for the bill, Majority Leader Hoyer abandoned them and the voters. If he'd start voting to quickly withdraw our troops from Iraq, it would bring a lot of other members of Congress along too.

Democrats should be emboldened and pushing for a mandatory exit from Iraq—not holding back.

Recently, 11 Republican Members of Congress met with President Bush at the White House and berated him on his handling of Iraq.1 Meanwhile, polls show President Bush has a 28 percent approval rating and 57 percent of Americans favor Democratic efforts to tie any war funding to a plan to end the war.2, 3

The tide is turning. The country is with us. Thanks for all you 're doing to end this war.

Sincerely,

–-Nita, Eli, Wes, Karin and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Monday, May 14th, 2007

This was an e-mail I received from moveon.org.

This is my hat tip to all who called and signed and started that ball rolling up the Getthehelloutta Iraq hill. A toast to us! Granted, we have a ways to go, but I believe that we deserve this small victory. We should relish in it before getting that dialing finger back in motion. See what we can do - when we become one voice?