Steny Hoyer is no friend of Jerry McNerney

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You would think that as House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer would work relentlessly to help freshman Democrats in vulnerable districts keep their promises to their constituents.

Not Steny.

We all know that Jerry McNerney made a pledge in no uncertain terms:

I want to clearly and unequivocally express to you where I stand on the question of executing a responsible redeployment from Iraq:

I am firmly in favor of withdrawing troops on a timeline that includes both a definite start date and a definite end date ("date certain") and uses clearly-defined benchmarks. I am not in favor of an "open-ended" timeline for withdrawal, as some members of Congress have proposed recently.

Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader, just threw Congressman McNerney under his version of the unstoppable bus...

From the Hill article linked above:

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) came out on Wednesday in favor of holding a vote on a bipartisan Iraqi withdrawal bill. Meanwhile, the party's left wing renewed calls for a pullout and announced a new campaign to block funds for arming and training the Iraq Security Forces.

The bipartisan legislation, authored by Reps. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) and John Tanner (D-Tenn.), would order Bush to draft plans to withdraw from Iraq but not require them to be implemented. Rep. Phil English (R-Pa.) and two other Republicans have signed on as cosponsors.

"I would like to see us move forward on that," Hoyer said. "The president ought to come up with a plan for withdrawal."

That is, Hoyer supports a plan without a fixed end date, exactly the legislation that Congressman McNerney just went on record opposing. Thanks Steny! That's really helpful to all of us here working our butts off to re-elect Jerry McNerney.

That Hill article makes it seem like the issue of the war in Iraq is a matter of "liberal" vs. "the center" with deceptive claims about "left-wing" policies. We all know a change of course in Iraq is a mainstream issue. Yes, there are many liberals opposed to Bush policy, there are also many moderates and independents who have the same views. Americans want a change of course in Iraq:

-69% of the American public disapproves of Bush on Iraq
-64% of the American public opposes the war in Iraq
-59% of the American public as recently as July favored withdrawing US forces from Iraq to save American lives even if it would leave Iraq unstable

This is not "a liberal issue." The war in Iraq is a mainstream American issue with clear majorities calling for a responsible change of course. Mike Soraghan at the Hill is fooling nobody with that tired frame. That's lazy journalism. And in this case lazy journalism highlights the grave failure of leadership exhibited by our friend from Maryland, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

Congressman McNerney has voted consistently for an Iraq policy that would fully fund a change of course in Iraq...a policy that would start bringing our troops home safely and give the Iraqis a firm deadline for taking charge of the security of their own nation. Steny Hoyer wants to toss deadlines out the window. In doing so, he's throwing right-wing Republicans a life preserver and throwing Jerry McNerney under the bus.

Steny Hoyer is no friend of Jerry McNerney or CA-11. If you feel like it, you should let him know....OOPS!!

I guess even though Congressman Hoyer is the House Majority Leader, he doesn't accept emails from us folks out here in the greater USA. Try him on his landlines! Let him know what you think of Democratic leaders who throw our freshmen under the bus:

Congressman Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader:
Phone - (202) 225-4131
Fax - (202) 225-4300

Comments

DownWithTyranny said…
From the moment the Democrats chose Hoyer as Majority Leader, it was clear that there would be no decisive action against Bush's war agenda-- an agenda Hoyer has always supported, if surreptitiously from time to time.
9:58 PM
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