Heads up, constituents of Rick Larsen!

[eridani]

Meetings on Iraq war scheduled. Contact Rena Patty" rena {at} rockisland.com

Hi all,

I talked with Louis Lauter at Rick Larsen’s WA DC office this morning. I have a meeting scheduled for Feb 5 at 1 pm in WA DC – definitely with Louis, possibly with Rick.

I called to ask for a response to the packet sent from Rick’s Bellingham office on Wednesday, and in particular to the call to cut funding for the war and withdraw troops and also the SJC advisory vote and county resolution. It was interesting. Louis said he had seen the information I sent regarding the advisory vote and then he stammered quite a bit in figuring out what to say next. He said wasn’t sure if Rick had seen the information on the advisory vote, and then diverted to talking about Rick’s recent meeting with President Bush and Rick’s developing position on the situation in Iraq.

I mentioned that Rick’s job is to represent his constituents in WA DC and that I wanted clarity about how Rick is representing us. He said that the WA DC office had received resolutions from several counties (I’m guessing this refers also to other county Democratic Party organization resolutions) and that “Rick doesn’t respond to county resolutions.” He said while he, Louis, couldn’t send a response to a resolution, he could send a statement about Rick’s position regarding Iraq.

I asked specifically who was going to respond to us, and when, regarding how Rick was representing us. Try as I might, I couldn’t get him to commit to specifics. I gave him Ron’s email address, and he said he would give it to Jasper at the district office to send a response. I keep thinking it shouldn’t be this much work - and I’ve got it in my calendar to call Ron, and if necessary Louis again, next Monday, to follow up.

If you care about what happens in Iraq, this is a good time to get calls into Rick’s WA DC office – 202-225-2605 – and get your friends to call.

Our meeting on Feb 5 will be focused on shifting security strategies in Iraq (and overall) from military operations to conflict de-escalation, conflict mediation, and truth and reconciliation processes. I will also present our WSDCC resolution on responding to climate change.

I’ll be away from home and won’t be sending or responding to email now until Jan 24.

Rena

[pscot]

1. Thanks for the effort.

Larsen is no better than he has to be. Keep after him. I will call his office and urge others to do the same. He's a trimmer. His votes for the bankruptcy bill and inheritance tax repeal suggest expediency rather than principle.