DCDL

If you’re looking to spend a few days networking with liberal activists, hearing speakers, and attending workshops, there are at least three progressive political conferences this summer:

• DemocracyFest, June 9–10, 2007, Manchester, New Hampshire: Sponsored by Democracy for America, this “annual educational and inspirational festival for the progressive grassroots” features Howard Dean, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, and other speakers, trainers, films, and panels.

• Take Back America, June 18–20, 2007, Washington, DC: The Campaign for America’s Future is holding this conference at the Washington Hilton (across the street from our DCDL meeting place). Speakers include John Edwards (and probably Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who spoke last year), Howard Dean, newly elected senators (including Jon Tester), bloggers (including Atrios and Chris Bowers), and others. Drinking Liberally will be co-hosting a special event one night, so watch this blog and the e-mail list for details.

• YearlyKos, August 2–5, 2007, Chicago, Illinois: John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson (at least) will be participating in a Presidential Leadership Forum. The speaker lineup is still in flux. Those who can’t travel to Chicago can attend YearlyKos virtually in Second Life.

The DC House Voting Rights Bill, S. 1257, gets a little further today as the Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing, “Ending Taxation without Representation: The Constitutionality of S. 1257″. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) will preside. The hearing will be webcast from the committee’s site live at 1:30pm.

The witness list includes elected officials from DC and Utah, and a panel of constitutional scholars to educate the committee members about how the bill fits into the provisions of the Constitution (or fails to do so). Let’s hope they’re able to convince some Republican senators who aren’t from Utah.

Since my last update, four more senators have signed on as cosponsors:

• Russell Feingold (D-WI)
• Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
• Mark Pryor (D-AR)
• Thomas Carper (D-DE)

That brings the total to 13, not counting Joe Lieberman (I-CT), the main sponsor. It’s good to see support from Democrats from across the ideological spectrum. Now if we can just get enough Republicans to avoid a filibuster. According to local commentator and voting rights advocate Mark Plotkin, former Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele is lobbying Republican senators along with Jack Kemp.

DC for Democracy is having a picnic Saturday, May 19, in Rock Creek Park to raise funds to support their efforts, including presidential primary activities, voting rights, and community projects. Special guests include Jim Dean, chair of Democracy for America (and Howard Dean’s brother); Judy Feder, 2006 House candidate in Virginia’s 10th District; and members of the DC council. Suggested donation is $35 for an individual, $50 for a family.

If you’re looking for a local grassroots group focusing on progressive politics, DC for Democracy is the organization for you — and much of the leadership is made up of DCDL regulars (I’m the IT chair), so you should feel at home.

For more information, see the RSVP page (and if you can’t make it but feel moved to donate anyway, you can do it through ActBlue).

As Tom Goldstein mentioned at last week’s DCDL gathering, Barack Obama will be at H2O Restaurant & Lounge, 800 Water Street SW, on Wednesday, May 23, for a fundraiser that verges on affordability for ordinary people ($100, $50 for students). Tickets are going fast, so if you’re interested sign up today.

The next stage in the DC House Voting Rights Act’s passage through the Congress is a hearing Tuesday. If you’re able to come to the Hill that morning, please do, so we can have a crowd to demonstrate that DC residents care about the issue. Here’s the latest message from DC for Democracy:

As our patron Senator on DC Voting Rights and Chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, Sen. Joe Lieberman has just announced the schedule and witness panels for an important hearing on S. 1257, the DC House Voting Rights Act of 2007, on Tuesday, May 15 at 10:00 AM. All details about the hearing, including the witness list, can be found at http://www.dcvote.org/events/event.cfm?eventID=330.

To demonstrate our overwhelming support for the Senate’s quick response to our demand for full House voting rights, we are calling on all DC For Democracy members who are able to attend the 10:00am hearing, to please do so. We need to make our presence known and pack the room on Tuesday. Please attend the hearing if you are able — and show up early to get a seat! If you cannot make it in person, the hearing will be Web cast live from the Committee’s Web site at http://www.senate.gov/~govt-aff/.

Please RSVP to votingrights{at}dcfordemocracy.org.

Hope to see you all on Tuesday!

Karen Rose
Chair, Voting Rights & Democracy Committee
DC for Democracy

Since my previous post on the subject, two more senators have signed on as cosponsors: Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and John Kerry (D-MA).

If you’re a Virginia resident, please contact Sen. John Warner, who’s a possibly persuadable Republican member of the relevant committee, and ask him to support the bill, S. 1257. For that matter, wherever you are, if you have senators, ask them for their support. One way to send a message is to use the Free and Equal DC site.

I’ve been halfway following online the House Judiciary Committee’s questioning of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Here are a few disorganized thoughts:

• Ranking Republican Lamar Smith of Texas (known to us as the guy who tried to sabotage the DC voting rights bill by adding an amendment repealing DC’s gun laws) lobbed a bunch of softballs to Gonzales, but Gonzales couldn’t even manage those very well. For example, when asked whether the White House had pressured him to fire US attorneys to interfere in ongoing investigations, rather than strongly denying the possibility, he said “Not that I recall.” Shouldn’t that be something he’d absolutely recall if it happened, or are corrupt orders from the White House just so common that he can’t keep track of them all?
• Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) said that Gonzales was not under oath. Why on earth are we still having people testify before congressional committees without swearing them in? Shouldn’t that just be a standard part of the process rather than something that needs to be decided anew every time? If it always happens, then no one needs to take offense when they’re asked to swear.
• The Republicans questioning Gonzales, including Howard Coble (R-NC) and Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), are obsessed with intellectual property laws (when they’re not obsessed with illegal immigration). Apparently there are networks of people counterfeiting Gucci bags to fund terrorist attacks, so we need to prevent people from using TiVo and listening to Internet radio, or something.
• Later on, another Republican asked a question very similar to Lamar Smith’s, and again Gonzales gave an answer that wasn’t a simple, flat denial.
• Gonzales refused to answer a lot of questions out of concern for “the integrity of an ongoing investigation”. It’s too bad that similar concerns didn’t prevent him from firing US attorneys when they’re in the middle of ongoing investigations of Republicans.
• A frequent theme from the Republicans was that conducting this hearing kept the attorney general away from his job at the Justice Department, where he has important work to do protecting us from terrorists, illegal aliens, child predators, pornographers, and trademark violators. Apparently oversight is just a waste of time. But Gonzales has already established that he isn’t very involved in the running of the department, so how does his spending the day on Capitol Hill really make any difference?
• I’m surprised that at this stage the Republicans are supporting Gonzales and Bush so wholeheartedly. There’s none of the harsh Republican criticism of Gonzales that I remember from the Senate hearing several weeks ago. They’re raising all sorts of long-debunked bogus defenses, including the ever-popular “Clinton did it too!”

On Thursday, May 10 the DC chapter of Drinking Liberally is proud to host washingtonpost.com columnist Dan Froomkin at Timberlake’s, Dupont Circle. Dan is best known for his White House Watch column, a weekday roundup of all the latest on the White House. His column is a critical favorite in the political blogosphere.

The evening starts with a happy hour 6:30-7:30, followed by Dan’s talk and Q&A. Per tradition on our speaker nights, free appetizers, and drink discounts last until 9:00.
(more…)

This week Joe Lieberman introduced S. 1257, the Senate version of the DC voting rights bill (the House version, H.R. 1905, passed last month). So far he’s got seven cosponsors, and it’s good to see that they include two of the Democratic presidential candidates, along with other Democrats from across the political spectrum, and the two senators from Utah (both Republican):

• Robert Bennett (R-UT)
• Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)
• Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
• Edward Kennedy (D-MA)
• Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
• Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
• Barack Obama (D-IL)

I’m hoping that Lieberman will be able to reach out to more Republicans to increase support and avoid a filibuster. Of course even if the bill passes the Senate it may still be vetoed by the president, but I’m hoping that if enough Republicans go along Bush won’t feel obliged to use one of his rare vetoes to stand in the way of bringing partial democracy to the residents of the nation’s capital.

If you’re one of those Americans who’s fortunate enough to have senators, please contact them and ask them to support S. 1257. You can use Mike Panetta’s Free and Equal DC site to send a message (and DC residents can use it to send messages to their state-dwelling friends).

The local grassroots group DC for Democracy has its monthly meeting tonight. They’re getting ready to kick off their presidential primary efforts, so they’re seeking input. If you’re looking to get involved in a group, this would be a great time to check out DC4D.

There will also be an update on the status of DC voting rights and some information about the upcoming Picnic in the Park fundraiser (mark your calendar for May 19).

Wednesday, May 2, 7pm
Ben’s Chili Bowl, 1213 U St NW (back room)
(across the street from U Street Metro, Green/Yellow Line)
RSVP