http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0211-09.htm
To this day, I find it impossible to take seriously anyone who demanded that Lerner be permitted to spew apologetics for apartheid from an ostensibly anti-war stage.
http://www.counterpunch.org/lerner02142003.html
On 9/11/07, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> [Thanks to Lou Proyect for pointing this out. His comments are at
> <http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/eavesdropping-on-a-
> phone-conference/>.
> The original transcript is at
> <http://www.spiritualprogressives.org/article.php?
> story=20070907191110516&mode=print>.]
>
> <http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0907/5723.html>
>
> Anti-war leaders stymied, frustrated
> By: Mike Allen
> September 10, 2007 07:32 PM EST
>
> A well-known anti-war leader has gone public with the transcript of a
> private conference call that shows peace activists are exasperated
> with the Democratic congressional leadership and at a loss for a long-
> term strategy.
>
> The Aug. 29 call highlights divisions in the Democratic Party that
> Republicans are gearing up to try to exploit as Congress debates its
> response to the report on Iraq this week by Gen. David H. Petraeus
> and Ambassador Ryan Crocker.
>
> On Monday, the pair begins two days of testimony on Capitol Hill.
>
> Republicans say the call reflects the degree to which war opponents
> have failed to gain the advantage that many in both parties thought
> would build over the summer.
>
> Rabbi Michael Lerner, the editor of Tikkun magazine, posted the
> transcript Friday on the website of the Network of Spiritual
> Progressives, of which he is a co-chair.
>
> The transcript shows that opponents of the war in Iraq plan to try to
> convince freshman Democrats from conservative districts that they
> might not get reelected unless the party produces something serious
> in the way of resistance to the war.
>
> But the call shows the war opponents are having little success
> because of fears about the impact on next year's elections if the
> party is seen as defeatist.
>
> The call, which Lerner titled "Strategizing With Leaders of the Anti-
> War Movement," included two sympathetic members of Congress and
> representatives of groups ranging from Code Pink to the Progressive
> Democrats of America.
>
> Lerner — who is based in Berkeley, Calif., and is a leader of what he
> calls "the religious left" — told Politico in a phone interview on
> Sunday that he concluded from the call that the anti-war movement
> does not have a long-term strategy, even though the war "is going to
> continue through the end of President Bush's administration" and
> perhaps into the term of the next president.
>
>
> "A central point that the spiritual progressives are trying to make
> to the secular progressives is this: People in the U.S. are opposed
> to the war, but they feel that they need to have a picture of what
> the world would look like if the U.S. were to withdraw from the world
> by leaving Iraq," Lerner said.
>
> Lerner said he posted the transcript in an effort to convince war
> opponents that they need "some fundamentally new thinking."
>
> "Right now, we could write the story of this Congress as 'Profiles in
> Cowardice,'" Lerner said. "There's a great deal of frustration with
> the Democrats in the Congress – a sense almost of betrayal.
>
> The Democrats don't have – and even the people in the anti-war
> movement don't have – a coherent alternative world view from which to
> base a strategy. That's why they end up debating everything on the
> same terms that the Republicans do."
>
> Lerner, 64, said he is on the Orthodox side of the Jewish Renewal
> Movement; he gained a measure of fame early in the Clinton
> administration when then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton quoted his
> phrase "politics of meaning" in speeches.
>
> Lerner said the transcript was prepared by his staff and that he is
> certain it is accurate.
>
> Republicans are circulating the link to the transcript and think it
> makes their case that opponents of the war in Iraq are losing ground.
> "This call shows the tables may have turned," said one Republican
> official.
>
> "It shows the tightrope Democrats have to walk with an angry group of
> liberal organizers who are sensing defeat."
>
> The transcript quotes Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), who is co-chair
> of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, as saying: "The people that
> need to hear are the moderate Democrats who are holding up the whole
> thing.
>
> They're the ones who have to know that their people care, that they
> [want to] bring our troops home. They swear they don't. They swear
> that they'll lose their elections if they do the right thing."
>
> When one peace organizer talks about "peeling away Republican support
> for the war," Woolsey interjects: "Maybe you folks should go after
> the Democrats."
>
> Chris Shields, Woolsey's press secretary, said in reply: "As a leader
> of the anti-war movement, the congresswoman is committed to working
> with outside groups, her colleagues in the House and her party's
> leadership to bring our troops home to their families in a safe and
> orderly manner."
>
> During the call, Woolsey advises the activists: "Help people change
> the conversation from 'abandoning the troops' to funding orderly
> redeployment. I'm telling you, that's going to take six months to a
> year. … Progressives know that whether we spend money on this or not
> is going to make the difference. That's all the House can really do,
> the budget part of it."
>
> The activists express discontent with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-
> Calif.). At one point, Woolsey, who represents Marin and Sonoma
> counties, is quoted as saying: "I believe that Nancy is with us, and
> she's counting on you guys ... and me to push from the left in the
> Congress."
>
> Lerner, in the interview with Politico, was not sympathetic. "We're
> not that concerned about what's going on in her heart," he said.
> "We're trying to end the war, and in that, she does not seem to be
> very much with us, [she] is not willing to take any serious political
> risk."
>
> Jennifer Crider, a Pelosi aide who is communications director of the
> Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in response: "We
> understand their frustration. Democrats are frustrated more
> Republicans won't listen to their constituents and join our fight to
> end the war."
>
> The other lawmaker on the call, Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), defends
> Pelosi. "The speaker doesn't have the votes," he said. "If you see
> what has happened in the Democratic Caucus, I don't think you'd be
> quite as critical of the speaker. She really is trying. … We cobbled
> together a majority by winning in a lot of seats that tend to be
> conservative: in the South, in the rural Midwest, and so on. These
> members are very much afraid that if they get too far out front,
> they're going to lose their seat, and they're being advised to not
> take risks so we can sustain this majority."
>
> "You know, it's a calculated decision, and it's a difficult one,"
> Moran added. "I think I know where Nancy is in her heart, and I think
> she is where we are. But she's in a leadership position now. She
> needs to represent more than her immediate constituency; she's got to
> represent the Democratic Party, and there's a whole lot of Democrats
> that are far more reluctant to challenge this president and to make
> waves."
>
> Moran talks about finding cracks in Republican support. "Just as we
> have Democrats in conservative Republican seats, they've got more
> Republicans in what have become Democratic seats," he said.
>
> "We've got to target them. They're going to have to choose between
> their loyalty to their constituency versus their president. Their
> president is on his way out, and when you talk to them privately,
> they share a lot more misgivings than they express publicly, and I
> think we need to tap into those misgivings."
>
> Lerner said he plans to hold a similar call "after the congressional
> thing plays out – probably in the middle of October." He said he is
> debating whom to invite and is not sure it makes sense to include the
> members of Congress.
>
> "They're trying to explain to us why they can't stop the stop the
> war," Lerner said. "I have tremendous respect for these people, and I
> don't mean to be sounding too negative about them. But I don't know
> if it would be that profitable to have a conversation with people who
> have this need to protect Nancy."
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