Iraq is not going so great... Well, DUH!
by Leigh Pomeroy
Vox Verax has been silent regarding Rep. Gil Gutknecht's recent flip-flop on Iraq mainly because Tom Maertens and I have been busy dealing with other issues, of which (as anyone knows) there are many. But we've noticed it's been picked up nationally at Salon and DailyKos, among others.
The summary is simple:
Rep. Gutknecht, a heretofore ardent supporter of the President's war in Iraq, has seemed to change his mind after one weekend trip to Iraq to (quote) visit the troops. The question everyone is asking:
Is his change of heart because he is being challenged by a 24-year National Guard veteran who's been questioning the war for the past year and a half? (Mr. Gutknecht, like many war proponents in the Bush administration, has no military experience.)
Okay, let's be frank. I ran a brief, four-month campaign against Mr. Gutknecht in 2004 as the DFL (Democratic Party) Candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in the 1st Congressional District in Minnesota. I have been opposed to the war from its inception and pointed out during my campaign that the war was wrong.
My partner in this blog, Tom Maertens, worked for the George W. Bush White House as a member of the State Department. He helped plan the war in Afghanistan (as much as the State Department was allowed), after which he retired. When Bush & company skewed the evidence to precipitate the war in Iraq, Maertens began to speak out. And thankfully, he hasn't shut up since.
Tom and I have taken issue with Gutknecht on a number of matters, but his apparent backtracking on the war causes us to wonder, as it has others, where has he been all these years?
Which bring us to this point:
Gil, you've served your maximum of 12 years as you promised when you signed the Contract with America. It's time to move on to something else. Congress has been a nice deal for you. Lots of perks. Annual pay raises. Plenty of free trips. The adulation of a plethora of business interests that have benefited from the White House-Congress conspiracy to help the upper class (including members of Congress) at the expense of the middle and lower level wage earners.
Gil, you'll do well in retirement. You'll be able to travel to Germany more, where, by the way, they have universal health care and strong supports for the working class, both of which you have opposed in the United States. Plus, you have that great congressional pension. And of course you can always get a job as a lobbyist for one of those industries that has consistently supported you. (We've wondered why you've been so popular with the beer wholesalers, your top campaign contributor, when the only brewery we know of in your home district is the incomparable Schell's Brewing in New Ulm.)
Yes, Gil, you're a great guy. You've done well, thanks to the Gingrich revolution and the power of incumbancy. But it's 2006, not 1994, and the U.S. has changed. It's time to give someone else a chance to represent the 1st Congressional District. It's time for you to move on.
We wish you well.
Vox Verax has been silent regarding Rep. Gil Gutknecht's recent flip-flop on Iraq mainly because Tom Maertens and I have been busy dealing with other issues, of which (as anyone knows) there are many. But we've noticed it's been picked up nationally at Salon and DailyKos, among others.
The summary is simple:
Rep. Gutknecht, a heretofore ardent supporter of the President's war in Iraq, has seemed to change his mind after one weekend trip to Iraq to (quote) visit the troops. The question everyone is asking:
Is his change of heart because he is being challenged by a 24-year National Guard veteran who's been questioning the war for the past year and a half? (Mr. Gutknecht, like many war proponents in the Bush administration, has no military experience.)
Okay, let's be frank. I ran a brief, four-month campaign against Mr. Gutknecht in 2004 as the DFL (Democratic Party) Candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in the 1st Congressional District in Minnesota. I have been opposed to the war from its inception and pointed out during my campaign that the war was wrong.
My partner in this blog, Tom Maertens, worked for the George W. Bush White House as a member of the State Department. He helped plan the war in Afghanistan (as much as the State Department was allowed), after which he retired. When Bush & company skewed the evidence to precipitate the war in Iraq, Maertens began to speak out. And thankfully, he hasn't shut up since.
Tom and I have taken issue with Gutknecht on a number of matters, but his apparent backtracking on the war causes us to wonder, as it has others, where has he been all these years?
Which bring us to this point:
Gil, you've served your maximum of 12 years as you promised when you signed the Contract with America. It's time to move on to something else. Congress has been a nice deal for you. Lots of perks. Annual pay raises. Plenty of free trips. The adulation of a plethora of business interests that have benefited from the White House-Congress conspiracy to help the upper class (including members of Congress) at the expense of the middle and lower level wage earners.
Gil, you'll do well in retirement. You'll be able to travel to Germany more, where, by the way, they have universal health care and strong supports for the working class, both of which you have opposed in the United States. Plus, you have that great congressional pension. And of course you can always get a job as a lobbyist for one of those industries that has consistently supported you. (We've wondered why you've been so popular with the beer wholesalers, your top campaign contributor, when the only brewery we know of in your home district is the incomparable Schell's Brewing in New Ulm.)
Yes, Gil, you're a great guy. You've done well, thanks to the Gingrich revolution and the power of incumbancy. But it's 2006, not 1994, and the U.S. has changed. It's time to give someone else a chance to represent the 1st Congressional District. It's time for you to move on.
We wish you well.
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