WHY JANE HARMAN (D-CA) SHOULD BE DEFEATED

Unless you're a Zell Miller/Joe Lieberman type of make-believe Democrat, Jane Harman is probably not someone you want to see re-elected to Congress from her safely blue Democratic Los Angeles seat (CA-36) which runs from San Pedro to Redondo Beach to Venice. In a perfectly apt self-description, Harman has called herself "the best Republican in the Democratic Party." And although Joe Lieberman might debate her on that, her voting record is even more reactionary and more rubber-stamp Bush than even his!

The multi-millionaire Harman is a hawk on Iraq and supports Bush on the disastrous occupation. Not coincidentally, almost every one of her big campaign contrbutors are arms merchants. She voted for the Constitution-shredding "Patriot Act" twice and she was one of only four Democrats briefed on Bush's illegal warrantless domestic spying program. (Tellingly, when that program was finally revealed by the NEW YORK TIMES, Harman expressed outrage... not at the Bush Regime, of course, but at the TIMES, for making the American people aware of what she, Bush and other anti-democratic traitors were doing in secrecy.

This is a safe Democratic seat. Bush got his wimpy ass kicked by Kerry 60/40 in 2004 and the Republicans, perfectly content to keep their pal Harman in the seat, have a pathetic challenger sacrificial lamb named Brian Gibson who hasn't even bothered to put up a website. (He naps a lot and is said to be hoping for a Republican tsunami of support for Bush to defeat all Democrats in California and place him in Congress.)

On the other hand, there is a far more palatable way to get rid of the odious Harman. Much like Ned Lamont's courageous challenge to Lieberman in Connecticut, Marcy Winograd has decided to offer Democrats from Venice to Torrance a real choice in the June primary. Marcy, whose supporters were able to prevent the State Democratic Party from endorsing Harman, has been endorsed by Ron Kovic, Tom Hayden, Gore Vidal, Ed Asner, Cindy Sheehan, Tim Goodrich, Jim Hightower, Mimi Kennedy, Ed Begley, Jr., Mike Farrell, Howard Zinn, Stanley Sheinbaum, Dan Ellsberg, Robert Greenwald and scores of local Democratic clubs, as well as the local Democracy for America and Progressive Democrats For America and the Western Region of the United Auto Workers.

After reading Marcy's diary at MyDD I decided to start an ACT BLUE page for her. What got me so excited? Here, take a look yourself: "President of Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles, I am running to replace pro-war incumbent Jane Harman in California's 36th Congressional District. I run with a great sense of urgency, for we stand on the precipice of losing our democracy, of sinking a trillion-dollars into Iraq, of launching another war in Iran, of developing over 100 new nuclear bombs each year, and of shredding the Constitution. Everywhere I travel in the 36th District, a 30-mile urban stretch from San Pedro up through Venice and Mar Vista, a district where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 40,000 votes, people stop me in the street, in elevators, at meetings to ask, 'Where are the Democrats? Why aren't they speaking out?'

"I assure them this Democrat, Marcy Winograd, is speaking out passionately, challenging the leadership of the Democratic Party to stand for the possibility of peace, for the rule of law, and for a brighter day when we reject pre-emptive war and, instead, engage the world community in tackling illiteracy, AIDS, and poverty, all the while engaging our own citizens in redefining security as universal affordable health care, quality education to close the achievement gap, and environmental protection to cool the threat of global warming.

"Some ask, 'Have you ever been elected to office?' and I tell them, 'No, isn't that great? I have no investment in the status quo, in the power of the Beltway.' Quite the contrary. I have spent the last three years on the ground, knee deep in the grassroots, organizing town hall forums and congressional lobby delegations to end the US occupation of Iraq.

"As Co-Founder of the California Election Protection Network, I have stood on the frontlines of the movement to ensure our votes are not gobbled up by hackable electronic voting machines and to keep a close eye on a Republican Secretary of State who waltzed into office with a Diebold lobbyist on his transition team.

"I am relentless, unstoppable, moved by a deep sense of conviction that the Bush agenda of eternal war is not the answer, and that it will take a groundswell of both outrage and hope to lead our nation back to sanity, to strengthen the Democratic Party, and to ensure the Party stands for something other than accommodation to those who rush to war and pledge allegiance to a false sense of patriotism.
 
"A former LA County Democrat of the Year, I managed a Democratic Club headquarters in Santa Monica during the 2004 election and helped launch Swing State Sisters, a group of women who traveled to Arizona and Florida to GOTV for Kerry. Never again will I support someone who waffles so treacherously on the question of war and peace, particularly when the war in question is wrapped in a package of lies by men who want to build a corporate empire via a sanitized notion of regime change.

"Now is the time for all of us to summon the activist, the humanitarian, and the visionary inside ourselves. Yes, we must invest our precious time and energy into taking back Congress, but not without a commitment to peace, to leaving this world a better place for our children and our children's children, not without seizing the reigns from leaders, be they Democrat or Republican, who climb into bed with war profiteers and then masquerade as advocates for the people.

"To those of you who remain skeptical, who argue that a grassroots activist cannot claim victory over a $550,000 six-term incumbent, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee-- Jane Harman, the same woman who boasted she was flattered to be considered the best Republican in the Democratic Party, to those of you who say the people cannot prevail over entrenched power and influence, I say, 'Join the hundreds of volunteers walking precincts from Venice to San Pedro, stand with me and Cindy Sheehan and Daniel Ellsberg and Ron Kovic and Fernando Suarez del Solar and Ed Begley and Ed Asner and Howard Zinn and Jim Hightower and Mimi Kennedy and Tim Carpenter and Lila Garrett and feel the excitement in the air, and hark back to the day weeks ago when we blocked my opponent's endorsement by delegates to the Democratic Party or the day that the rank and file of the United Teachers of Los Angeles and the California Federation of Teachers, now mindful that their leadership had knee-jerked endorsed a pro-war incumbent, said NO, we reject this candidate, we rescind our endorsement. Yes, hark back to the day when the Sierra Club could not muster enough votes for Harman after hearing me, Marcy Winograd, speak of war and nuclear proliferation as the worst environmental crimes imaginable, and know that the time is ripe for change and that the people are hungry for real leadership and that Winograd for Congress will prevail. Be part of this movement electrifying the grassroots, contribute, endorse, volunteer, blog away. Join Winograd for Congress (winogradforcongress.com) as we sprint to the finish.'"

She sounds good to me and, although I recognize what a tough journey it is for a grassroots progressive to go up against an entrenched Inside-the-Beltway incumbent, if anyone can do it, it is Marcy Winograd. Click here if you'd like to send Marcy some support.