by Bob Brigham [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by Bob Brigham [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by Bob Brigham [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

In last year's front page Washington Post story on Ellen Tauscher, Iraq took center stage:

[Tauscher] then raced to catch the last minutes of an Armed Services Committee hearing, just in time to question Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As five women from the antiwar group Code Pink stood in protest, Tauscher asked two quick questions: Why didn't Bush's budget increase production of the C-17, a plane based at Travis? And how much would the president's troop increase cost?

[...]

But Code Pink activist Zanne Joi, whose shirt read "Stop Funding, Start Impeaching," was not impressed. She said she was horrified that Tauscher hadn't challenged Gates about Iraq, that she had treated the increase as a done deal. "We need her to stand up and end this war," said Joi.

Interestingly, at the Petraeus hearing last week, it was Tauscher with the most interesting line of questioning. And two weeks ago, at what was billed as a "major address" before the Contra Costa Council, Ellen Tauscher went hard against Iraq:

by EmilyDu [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Representatives Ellen Tauscher (CA 10th) and Jerry McNerney (CA 11th (with some guy inbetween). From Tauscher's website.

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

(cross-posted on Open Left)

I kind of like the sound of that one.  We may have bungled a primary challenge to Ellen Tauscher, but we accomplished a lot of our goals.  She is now generally acting and talking a lot better, especially on the war.  The big bonus is that the media is tracking how we interact with her, which increases the pressure on her.  Check out this blog post on the new LAT presidential blog Top of The Ticket.  It titled "Controversial California congresswoman backs Clinton:

by juls [courtesy of Calitics: Soapblox California - Front Page]

It seems pretty clear that many people in the netroots who worked hard for Jerry, donated time and time again are pretty upset with the new Representative today.  Heck, even Ellen Tauscher found a way to vote to get us out of Iraq today.

No Representative will ever be perfect, especially those in more moderate districts.  But this was a vote of conscious today and McNerney failed that test.  I think all those who walked those precincts, threw Jerry fundraisers and made calls on his behalf deserve an explanation for his vote today.

by blogswarm [courtesy of Calitics: Soapblox California - Front Page]

Yesterday, I received two letters from Congressman McNerney thanking me for two separate contributions. But those will probably be my last. Pombo isn't running and McNerney just voted to stay in Iraq. When you vote worse than Ellen Tauscher on the most important issue of the day, I really don't see how I can have respect for anything else you do. I think Ezra explained this concept well:

But not all issues are created equal. In the opinion of the netroots, if you opposed eliminating dividend taxation and drilling in ANWR but enthusiastically supported the war in Iraq--and appear incapable of really repenting or learning from that error--you are not 66 percent liberal and thus an ally; you were and are wrong on the preeminent issue of our time.

This should have been an easy yea vote, for the life of me I can't understand why McNerney screwed up.