Eric Massa, live blogging at Kos

Cross posted from Kos, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/6/18/145954/842">where Eric is ready to answer questions, right now.


Fighting Dem Eric Massa's Weekly Dairy -

One week ago I had the honor and pleasure of addressing the Yearly Kos convention as part of a three member panel of netroots endorsed candidates who traveled to Nevada to connect with, thank, and reach out to the growing movement of netroots activists. This week we focused on the more traditional voter outreach that connects me with the voters of the 29th Congressional district.

Every year, in a growing measure of popularity, the summer boating season kicks off on Seneca Lake with the Waterfront Festival and its highlight event – the Cardboard Boat Regatta. A few months ago I challenged the staff to come up with a plan that would help us build voter outreach and connect us with as many of the 10,000 people as possible who travel from all over this region to enjoy the wildly popular summer kick-off event.
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The team, headed by our Chemung County and Schuyler County coordinators dedicated the last month to the construction of a six person cardboard battleship complete with firing cannon and up and over flags made from Massa for Congress flags. We were the first to arrive at the parade site and proceeded to set up and decorate the trailer and tow truck along with the actual 18 foot long battleship grey USS People’s Choice – a fully rowable battleship. The parade to the lake was a great success with staff and friends in Massa for Congress T-shirts handing out flyers and candy and myself meeting and shaking as many hands as possible. It was grassroots campaigning at its best and most satisfying. Real people, personal outreach and good, clean (well except for the mud) fun.

My reason today for talking about both the Yearly Kos event and the annual regional cardboard boat race is to highlight that it takes both types of outreach to win. Name recognition in the netroots arena is critical to creating support, to engaging in true discussion of the issues of the day, to candidate development and to build possible financial help. On the local scene we found that participation in grassroots activity generates local buzz that crosses county lines and lets people know that there is a viable and accessible alternative to the failed leadership that is in power today. (As a point of comparison, a couple of weeks ago we participated in the Green Grand Prix, the first sanctioned road rally in the U.S. for hybrid and alternative fueled vehicles. But while we were calling attention to energy independence, my opponent skipped this event and held a high-dollar fundraiser less than five miles away at the exclusive Glen Club.) Both of these are critical to delineate the differences between candidates as, yet again, the tired old Republican play book is laid out for all to see. It takes the grassroots and the netroots, the local as well as the state and national Democratic institutions to combat GOP efforts to pork roll their candidates back into office by buying off voters instead of listening to what they have to say.

The President last week traveled to Baghdad to celebrate the death of Zarqawi, whom we have been told was the top Al Qaeda leader in Iraq. And while we should all feel a sense of success that our military personnel were able to track down and eliminate this exceptionally evil and dangerous man, the bottom line is that our military personnel were able to accomplish this DESPITE the incredible failed strategy that this President and his rubber stamp allies in Congress have put in place. In reality the very fact that this Administration did not feel that their recently installed Iraqi Prime Minister was trust worthy enough to be told that the President was going to Iraq only demonstrates, in the clearest manner possible, that Mission has Not Been Accomplished.

Can you imagine the President going to Britain, or Italy, or even Pakistan without informing the Prime Minister? If he went to shore him up, he only demonstrated the callous disregard of this administration for Iraq autonomy, now or eventually.

Additionally, as I have said before (link), the basic underpinnings of this Bush strategy are flawed and cannot be executed so long as the neighboring countries do not desire us to succeed. We have to work the diplomacy as well. Successfully dealing with Iran is one of the most important aspects of that regional diplomacy. As Glenn Kessler has noted in today’s Washington Post, Iran was willing to talk in 2003 and we turned them down. Using regional diplomacy is a key component of success in Iraq and the Bush administration must do better.


While working the crowd at the boat race, the single most consistent question I was asked about was Iraq. It is clear that on Iraq this Administration has failed and that the American people are waiting for us, the Democratic Party, to lay out a plan and an alternative. And it is clear that this issue will continue to drive both parties’ strategies into November. Why else would newly-freed-from-indictment White House strategist Karl Rove orchestrate a painfully transparent Congressional debate to link the War in Iraq with the War on Terrorism, but to shame those who disagree with the Administration’s Iraq policy? It is shameful and I will not be intimidated.

SO, ON IRAQ, HERE IT IS:

Out is better than In.
Sooner is better than later.
Give the order; have the military carry it out.

Three steps to getting us out of Iraq. I do not have access to the current intelligence on the ground, so I cannot and will not call for arbitrary numbers of troop withdrawal on a timeline that makes no sense to anyone other than a Washington pollster -- nor can I tell you what month we will complete our redeployment from Iraq. I can tell you this: if the President were to give the order for immediate redeployment today it would still take 6 to 18 months just to make it happen. They will need a security plan in place that protects American troops as they remove equipment and personnel and fully turn over interior security to the tens of thousands of Iraqi troops that we have been training and who this Administration so proudly touts as being ready to defend the interests of the Iraqi government. Under no circumstances, and for no reason other than the stubbornness of this Administration and their rubber-stamping cronies in Congress, should we have large formations of troops in Iraq two years from today. Yet the President has said the conclusion of this conflict will be left for his successor to deal with.

My trip to Yearly Kos and my conversations with hundreds of down to earth folks at the festival yesterday reinforces that this election continues to be about our nation's security and how to guarantee it. I believe that this Administration has failed overseas in Iraq and that they have failed here at home.

In an effort to continue to tout their policies here at home, the Administration selectively released information about a plot to explode poison gas bombs in the subways of New York City. Although President Bush was personally shown a mock up model of one the bombs that was to be built - which prompted him to issue a non-specific threat upgrade -- and announce that the plot was foiled –



If the President was given a model of the actual bomb that was to be placed on subway trains why did he not go on National TV, show the American people the device and tell every commuter throughout the country to be on the look out. Of course that would have created a huge problem for cash-strapped urban cities who rely on Subways – but if there was specific threat to millions of commuting New Yorkers – why keep it a secret? Why the non-specific warning when very specific information was available?

I've heard to date: "Out is better than In.
Sooner is better than later.
Give the order; have the military carry it out.

Three steps to getting us out of Iraq. I do not have access to the current intelligence on the ground, so I cannot and will not call for arbitrary numbers of troop withdrawal on a timeline that makes no sense to anyone other than a Washington pollster -- nor can I tell you what month we will complete our redeployment from Iraq. I can tell you this: if the President were to give the order for immediate redeployment today it would still take 6 to 18 months just to make it happen. They will need a security plan in place that protects American troops as they remove equipment and personnel and fully turn over interior security to the tens of thousands of Iraqi troops that we have been training and who this Administration so proudly touts as being ready to defend the interests of the Iraqi government. Under no circumstances, and for no reason other than the stubbornness of this Administration and their rubber-stamping cronies in Congress, should we have large formations of troops in Iraq two years from today. Yet the President has said the conclusion of this conflict will be left for his successor to deal with."