DAN GRANT: WE HAVE TO GO TO THE SOURCE TO CHANGE THE COURSE

Dan Grant examines a rocket strike-- on his office roof in Baghdad

Whenever I've gone to Austin in the last few years I've been dismayed that such a lively, open, fun city has been violently gerrymandered to guarantee its citizens minimal impact on congressional elections. A far right kook with an extremist voting record like Michael McCaul could never win a seat from Austin any other way. No matter what issue you look at, he's out of step with Austin-- and out of step with more and more Americans and more and more Texans as they wake from the fog of the Bush-Cheney years of Darkness. Since getting into Congress, McCaul voted on 21 Iraq-related roll calls. You want to guess how many times this quintessential rubber stamp waste of a seat voted the Bush line? That's right-- he's 21 for 21. Even more disgracefully, he's been a pathetic rubber stamp fro the Bush-Cheney jihad against the well being of America's military personnel. Out of a dozen roll calls regarding out fighting men and women, McCaul has voted 12 times with Bush and 12 times against our military personnel. (But he says he supports the troops. That's GOP-speak for "Love the war/hate the damn soldiers.")

Last year the Democrat who took him on was Ted Ankrum, and with virtually no financing (he raised $72,000 while McCaul's corporate sponsors showered him with over $1,100,000), he held McCaul to a paltry 55%. Ankrum spent about a dollar a vote and McCaul spent almost $12.00 per vote. This time Texas Democrats are rallying around Dan Grant, who looks like he can give McCaul a run for his money his father-in-law's money. When I spoke with him the other day we discovered that I had a Jake Pickle for Congress badge that he had probably mailed me when he was an intern in Pickle's office. I asked him to send us an into to his campaign in Texas' 10th CD.

Everywhere I go, I hear the same thing-- our country’s on the wrong track. Every public poll, every private survey, every conversation, every shred of common sense tells us we need a fresh start in a new direction.

Two years ago, I went to Iraq to help conduct their historic elections. Prior to that, I was deputy director of their largest out-of-country voting program and oversaw an unprecedented effort to give democracy a chance in the Middle East by registering eligible voters in major U.S. cities for Iraq’s Transitional National Assembly election. And then I watched as the new government in Baghdad and the Bush-Cheney administration back in Washington dropped the ball.

That’s why I’m running for Congress in Texas’ 10th District-- because the last thing we can afford is more of the same.

Iraq, Katrina, SCHIP. We need a change in Washington. Now.

The incumbent was installed by Tom DeLay after his mid-decade redistricting scheme split Austin in thirds and saddled this most progressive city in Texas with a radical Republican whose father-in-law is the head of Clear Channel. He voted for the war in Iraq and against providing eligible children with the same health care he receives courtesy of the taxpayers in his district. He attacked MoveOn.org but applauded Rush Limbaugh. And he is ranked at the bottom of Texas’ congressional delegation for effectiveness-- a far cry from the days when this district was represented by the likes of Lyndon Johnson.

So I’ve come home. And now I’m asking voters to send me to the source so we can change the course.

In Iraq, I saw the possibilities of positive change. In Afghanistan, I helped coordinate security and policy planning for that nation’s post-Taliban constitutional convention. In Kosovo, I served as an elections supervisor for the 2001 elections, working for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to help organize more than 100 polling stations and conduct the historic vote. In Bosnia, I monitored and enforced polling place procedures for municipal elections.

Now it’s time to show our fellow Texans that positive change is possible-- a fresh start in a new direction.