Farmington Eccentric: War protestors turn up heat on Knollenberg

[bfealk]

War protesters turn up heat on Knollenberg
By Sue Buck
Staff Writer


A group of 35 protesters braved a nasty wind chill Thursday to call for an end to the Iraq War.

They lined up in front of U.S. Congressman Joe Knollenberg’s (R-Bloomfield Hills) office on Northwestern Highway in Farmington Hills Thursday and hand-delivered letters with the message, “You’re the decider.”


The letters, part of a national letter-writing campaign, urge Knollenberg not only to vote against the president’s plan but also to stop the president from escalating the war.
They never met with Knollenberg but spoke to his aides in the hallway.
“This event follows on the heels of Republicans in the Senate, once again, blocking debate and a vote on a non-binding resolution opposing the president’s escalation,” said Bruce Fealk, a MoveOn.org organizer.

Trent Wisecup, chief of staff for Knollenberg, responded with Knollenberg’s views in a prepared statement. "Congressman Knollenberg's patience with the Iraq war is growing thin,” Wisecup said. “He wants to see our troops return home as soon as possible. But he wants them to come home in victory, not defeat.” Now that the election is over, it's time for the politics to end and the bipartisan statesmanship to begin, he said.
“Democrats and Republicans voted to authorize this war in 2002, including Hillary Clinton,” Wisecup said. “Democrats and Republicans will have to work together to find a solution to Iraq. This can't be a partisan issue any longer. We have too much at stake in Iraq. It's time to put America and our troops first and leave the politics for last.”
Wisecup said that Knollenberg “stands ready to work with Democrats to find a solution.”
He also slammed MoveOn.org as “nothing more than a radical liberal organization that is determined to score political points.”
“They should be ashamed of themselves for playing politics when we have tens of thousands of brave men and women fighting for America in Iraq."
Thursday’s rally in Farmington Hills was one of more than 225 events nationwide.

Fealk complained that Knollenberg continues to ignore requests from his constituents to meet with him. “If the president won’t listen to the people, Congress must stop the escalation and bring our troops home,” Fealk said.

A survey

MoveOn.org members did their own survey in downtown Birmingham during the last two weekends. Of 531 people interviewed, 77 percent of the respondents did not support sending more troops to Iraq.
Birmingham was chosen because this is an area where the core of Knollenberg’s constituents are Republicans, said Fealk, a Rochester resident.

[noamnety]

1. Good job, Bruce

"They never met with Knollenberg but spoke to his aides in the hallway." -- Because the aides stood outside the door to the office blocking entry - shoulda been in the article. :)

Along with their crap response to "how does a person get an appointment to meet with our representative?"

"Send a written request"
"And then we will get an appointment?"
"And then *smirk* we'll see how it goes *smirk*" is not a legitimate answer.

[TahitiNut]

2. "including Hillary Clinton"

It's interesting how they "end" the "politics" and demonstrate "bipartisan statesmanship". It's also interesting how Hillary's vote has become an anchor around the necks of the Democratic Party.

This is an example of why I'm a liberal independent who steadfastly eschews the hyper-partisanship that places "pragmatism" ahead of principle. The "pragmatic" political calculus of voting 'Yea' on the IWR has come back to screw EVERY liberal (and everyone else, too) in this country. It was partisan political cowardice then and it's partisan political cowardice now.

[Mich Otter]

3. A response for Republicans

Trent Wisecup said, “They, (MoveOn.org), should be ashamed of
themselves for playing politics when we have tens of thousands of
brave men and women fighting for America in Iraq."
It seems to me like the Republicans ought to be ashamed of themselves
for endlessly supporting the pee-resident despite his lying to get us
into this war and the total incompetence shown dealing with the
consequences of the war. How much longer do we need to claim a victory?
Yeah, let some dumbass Republican say to my face that MoveOn or any Democrat ought to be ashamed of trying to end this travesty. This is absolutely a Republican War. They allowed Bush to use manipulations of
the facts, as well as outright lies, to get the war the
Republicans/Neo-Cons wanted.
If these Republicans had been in charge since the 1960s, I have no
doubt we would still have troops dying in Viet Nam.

Why do we keep listening to leaders who lie us into wars? I hope
everyone here has read, and recommended to family and friends, the
article written by General Smedley-Butler about his experiences in
World War One and what was leading up to World War Two.
http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm
Please read this article, if you have not already, and pass it on to
all you can.

[ray of light]

4. Is Nancy Skinner going to run again?

[SharonRB]

5. See my response to you in the other thread

[gasperc]

6. Hey! I was one of those 35

and damn proud!!! Good organizing Bruce