Iraq War

Rep. Norm DicksThe Grays Harbor County Democrats met last week as usual, but when the meeting ended something stood out quite glaringly. The Aberdeen Daily World is reporting that the group decided not to endorse their sitting Democratic U.S. Representative, Belfair's Norm Dicks.

Dicks has consistently won elections by wide margins in his thirty-one year electoral career. Many Democrats at the meeting cited Dicks' support for funding the war in Iraq as a reason not to officially endorse him. Dicks voted for authorization of the war, but has since voiced the need to bring it to an end. Still, as with most Democrats, he votes to fund it.

Two insurgent Democratic challengers have expressed strong support for Rep. Dennis Kucinich's (D-Ohio) idea to introduce articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush Monday night. Paul Richmond (D-Port Townsend), who is seeking the seat of party mate Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Belfair), and Cheryl Crist (D-Olympia), who is running against Rep. Brian Baird (D-Vancouver), both issued press releases welcoming the impeachment and urging their fellow candidates to support the movement.

"I am thrilled that Congressman Kucinich has moved forward with enumerating the grave crimes and malfeasance in office of George W. Bush. There is ample evidence that warrants impeachment and removal from office of both Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney," said Crist. "I strongly wish that I were in Congress today so that I could co-sponsor this historic impeachment resolution."

U.S. Sen. John McCain: Getty ImagesPresumptive Republican presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), has released a strategy briefing with campaign manager Rick Davis outlining what they see will be the key issues and locations for the campaign in the fall, and how they might win them. Notably, the McCain camp singles out the Pacific Northwest as the one region in the country where the Iraq War is the top issue, compared to the economy that trumps all other issues nationally.

The presentation is also found on YouTube.

Olympia's Cheryl Crist, challenging Rep. Brian Bairdrd District (D-Vancouver) for his 3 seat in the House, bills herself as "the peace candidate" and stakes her candidacy to the notion that "peace and prosperity are our birthright as citizens of the United States of America," and that voters are clamoring for a candidate who represents their shared goals of peace and social justice.

In today's Seattle Times Representative Jim McDermott responded to the case revolving around his 2002 trip to Iraq, which Federal prosecutors recently alleged was organized by the Iraqi government through a man named Muthanna Al-Hanooti.

A new AP article reports that a 2002 trip to Iraq made by three U.S. Congressmen may have been paid for in secret by Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency. The lawmakers said to have made the trip are Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Seattle), David Bonior (D-Mich.) and Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), though it is reported that they were unaware of the funding source.

In today's Seattle Times, Darcy Burner writes an op-ed piece criticizing America's policy on Iraq. Particularly Burner cites the wasted money and loss of life involved with the ongoing war, and the lack of political action taken so far to end the war, which she calls a "quagmire" that makes our military "weaker by the day".  read more »

Rep. Jim McDermott wrote an op-ed in the Huffington Post today to mark the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War by considering what might have happened had the US not  been involved.  read more »