Democracy for Vancouver

Our U.S. Congressman Rep. Brian Baird, who was against the war but now is for the Iraq occupation, joined a small minority of House Democrats and voted against the war funding bill yesterday which calls for a withdrawal by December 15, 2008. It is obvious he no longer cares about his constituents at all when it comes to ending the Iraq quagmire.

I have this vivid memory of Rep. Baird in the summer of 2003 coming down to Esther Short Park for a Baird town hall and being mobbed by peace activists while he was crossing the street into the park.

“What are you going to do about the Iraq war”, peace activist. “The Republicans control Congress and the White House. There is nothing I can do about Iraq until you vote these people out of office”, Rep. Brian Baird.

Little did any of us know or ever imagine was that over 4 years later, with Congress back in power, that same representative, OUR representative, would desert us, go back on his word and be actively supporting the illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq.

Aneurin over at Politics is a Blood Sport has more on this story.

Washblog also has a story about finding a challenger for Baird in the primary.

The good news is the bill passed anyway. The bad news is a Bush veto is a foregone conclusion. Congress should have just skipped the formalities, voted to override his veto upfront (which will fail) and then just told us there is nothing they can do, again, even though that is a lie.   Why bother with all this repetitive nonsense?