Ex-Maine Lawmaker Plans Anti-War Offensive

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122806R.shtml

Ex-Maine Lawmaker Plans Anti-War Offensive
By Bart Jansen
The Portland Press Herald

Thursday 28 December 2006

Washington - Tom Andrews, the former Maine congressman who used his position as national director of Win Without War to argue against invading Iraq, is now urging the Democratically controlled Congress to bring the troops home.

"The disaster in Iraq is the result of the lethal combination of arrogance, ignorance and incompetence of the administration," said Andrews, who served on the House Armed Services Committee during his two terms representing the state's 1st Congressional District. "It is dangerous and short-sighted to keep our troops in the crossfire."

Andrews, 53, spent years organizing opposition to the war through Win Without War, a coalition of about 40 groups ranging from Families USA to the Sierra Club to Veterans for Peace. The Nov. 7 election results created a climate for change, he said, and his coalition plans a major lobbying effort in Congress next month.

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Andrews, who as a young adult lost his right leg to cancer, was executive director of the Maine Association of Handicapped Persons during the 1980s. The group lobbied federal officials for handicapped regulations. He also campaigned against a proposal for nuclear waste storage near Sebago Lake.

Meanwhile, he won seats in the state House and Senate before winning a congressional seat in 1990. He lost a 1994 Senate race to succeed former Majority Leader George Mitchell, a fellow Democrat, to Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe.

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