Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, as the Bay Area’s only member of the House Armed Services Committee (and chair of its Strategic Forces Subcommittee), got to ask questions today of U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus — our top military officer in Iraq — and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker on the status of the war and political developments.

I’m still trying to find a video clip, but the Washington Independent has this account:

Asked by Ellen Tauscher, a California Democrat, what he would say to a new president who asked for a withdrawal plan within 60 days of taking office, Petraeus dodged like hell. Wow.

“I would back up,” he said, “and ask what’s the mission, what’s the desired endstate. And then you advise on resources…” Tauscher said the goal would be to keep the security gains of the surge, fix the readiness problems of the military and cut U.S. costs in Iraq.

“My response would be dialogue on what the risks would be. And, again, this is about risk.” Petraeus sounded a lot like he was saying he would not be willing to advise a President Obama or a President Clinton on withdrawal — something that, unless he was willing to resign, is very Constitutionally dubious.

Seemingly aware of that, he added quickly, “Let me state up front that I absolutely support the idea of civilian control of the military. We do not work for ourselves. We take orders, and we follow them. What we want to do is have dialogue about the mission — what the endstate is — and then provide an assessment of a commander on the ground [as to] what the resources provided are … [I have] sworn an oath to the Constitution and the concept of civilian control.”

This is huge. Notice Petraeus still didn’t say he would do what his commander-in-chief asked: submit a plan for withdrawal if ordered, or resign if he was unable to.

And Politico blogger John Bresnahan had it this way:

Petraeus and Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) engaged in an interesting exchange. Tauscher pushed Petraeus and Crocker to tell the committee how they would respond to a new president taking office in January 2009 who wants to pull U.S. forces out of Iraq.

“We are not self-employed,” Petraeus reminded the California Democrat, adding that he has “sworn an oath to uphold” - civilian control of the military, so he cannot make policy, only execute it.

Petraeus added that he would “talk about risk” with the new commander-in-chief and others “in the chain of command,” but in the end, he would carry out his orders.

Petraeus’ answer explains succinctly why Democrats have such a hard time scoring political points in these hearings - Petraeus and Crocker portray themselves as insturments of President Bush’s policy rather than the deciders of that policy. Therefore, if Democrats have problems with those policies, they have to take it up with the White House, not career military and Foreign Service officers.

The answer is a good one politically, and it blunts many lines of attack the Democrats may have, but it is slightly disingenuous. Petraeus has the ear of the president, if media reports (including The Washington Post) are to be believed. Thus, what he says and recommends carries great weight in the Oval Office. Crocker is one of the most experienced and respected diplomats the country has, especially on Middle Eastern issues, so his viewpoint also is much more important than a mere title suggests.

The House today voted 308-116 to reauthorize the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) — America’s effort to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS worldwide — at $50 billion over five years, considerably more than the $30 billion for which President Bush had asked.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, was among the five original co-authors both of this H.R. 5501, the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act, and the original PEPFAR legislation back in 2003. Of the reauthorization, she said today there’s “perhaps no other piece of legislation that Congress will consider this year that will have greater impact on the lives of people around the world.”

Lee said she’s sad that former House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, who died Feb. 11, and former chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., who died in November, weren’t here to see this bipartisan compromise.

She noted the bill passed today includes language from her own PATHWAY Act, H.R. 1713 — which strikes the requirement that at least a third of U.S. funds for global HIV/AIDS prevention be earmarked for abstinence-until-marriage programs. Indeed, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, issued a statement today saying he’s “disappointed the Majority turned back a balanced Republican alternative that would have authorized funding for the PEPFAR program at the level requested by President Bush, while protecting taxpayers from funding programs that support abortions overseas.”

Lee also noted the House version doesn’t include language from her H.R. 3337, the HIV Non-Discrimination in Travel and Immigration Act, which would overturn the current travel and immigration ban on people living with HIV/AIDS wishing to enter the United States. “I’m happy that the Senate version of PEPFAR does adopt the language to eliminate the ban,” she said. “I will work with my colleagues to make sure that when we get to conference, the ban is repealed once and for all.”

Some other quotable quotes about the PEPFAR reauthorization, after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »

It isn’t every day that a political candidate uses the campaign’s bully pulpit to raise money for something other than the campaign itself.

But that seems to be the case out in the 10th Congressional District, where Moraga businessman Nicholas Gerber — unopposed in the June 3 Republican primary, headed for a showdown with incumbent Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, in November — is organizing a “Twist On Politics” charity fundraising event.

Gerber says he was sickened to realize this year’s presidential contest will cost upward of $1 billion, and found himself musing what even a tiny fraction of that sum would do for a needy community organization that either is headquartered in, or does a significant amount of work in, the 10th Congressional District.

So through his campaign’s Web site he’s asking local residents to nominate local charities they believe are worthy, and the one with the most votes will get the proceeds of a Scrabble tournament fundraiser scheduled for Sunday, May 25 at the Lafayette Veterans Memorial Hall, 3780 Mt. Diablo Blvd.

Melinda Gerber, the candidate’s wife, tells me all the money raised will go to the charity, none to the campaign. “When it comes time to do the fundraising, checks will be made payable to the charity and donors will receive a receipt and the usual tax deduction,” she said. “None of the funds will flow through us.”

From House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco:

“Today marks the fifth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq.

“We honor our fallen men and women, their comrades who have returned home, and those who continue to serve in Iraq, Afghanistan and in other parts of the world. They have performed their duties excellently, with bravery, with dignity and with honor. We also thank their families, whose quiet sacrifice for our nation can never be fully repaid.

“With the war in Iraq entering its sixth year, Americans are rightly concerned about how much longer our nation must continue to sacrifice our security for the sake of an Iraqi government that is unwilling or unable to secure its own future.

“The human cost of the war has been enormous, with nearly 4,000 lives lost and tens of thousands injured, many of them permanently. The cost to our national security has been immense — our military is stretched thin and our reputation in the world is damaged. And now, the war in Iraq has become a threat to our economy, with its colossal cost to taxpayers taking us more deeply into debt.

“It is for our military readiness, for the families of our brave men and women in uniform, for our national security, and for our standing in the world that America needs a New Direction in Iraq - not the continuation of the President’s plan for at least a 10-year, $3 trillion dollar war in Iraq. Democrats will continue to push for an end to the war in Iraq and increased oversight of that war.”

From House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio:

“In the five years that have passed since the start of this conflict, our men and women in uniform have heroically ousted a terrorist dictator, freed a nation, and planted the seeds for political reconciliation that will pave the way for the first democracy in a part of the world that needs it most. Today, after countless obstacles to our success over the past five years, Iraq’s fledgling democracy is at long last taking important steps toward the ultimate goal of self-rule. Elections have been held, police and military forces have been trained, legislatures have been assembled, and infrastructure has been built. And most importantly, American troops are beginning to return home after victory, not defeat.

“While our nation rightfully thanks each and every serviceman and woman who returns home from Iraq, it will be our children and grandchildren – and their children and grandchildren – who truly will owe them a debt of gratitude. Their selflessness and courage in the face of a ruthless and soul-less enemy not only has brought increasing security and stability to a breeding ground for terrorists seeking to destroy us, but it has laid the groundwork for a safer and more peaceful world for generations to come. While more work is left ahead of us, the progress made under General Petraeus’ plan gives our troops and their Iraqi security forces counterparts the momentum they need to overcome not only the terrorist enemy they face in Iraq – but also the naysayers at home who claimed victory was never possible.”

From Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo:

“The war has taken the life of nearly 4,000 American soldiers with tens of thousands being permanently injured. Our national security is being compromised by a military stretched to its breaking point and an administration that still lacks a strategy in Iraq and the war on terror, while our reputation as a responsible global power is on a steep decline.

“Right now the war is threatening our economy here at home. With rising oil prices, record home foreclosures and a generally weak economy we are continuing to hemorrhage money in Iraq at tax payer expense while driving the nation deeper into debt. It’s time to start re-investing in America and using our national resources to prevent an economic crisis here at home.

“We must honor the brave men and women who have lost their lives, the ones who have come home safely, and the ones who continue to fight by adopting new policies and a new direction in Iraq that will stop the violence, improve our military readiness, protect our economy and restore our standing in the world.”

From Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma:

“Five years ago today, President Bush took to the oval office to tell the world that the invasion of Iraq was underway. Five years later our country finds itself in an unwinnable quagmire, a failure so great that it will forever overshadow the lengthy list of President Bush’s other disappointments and missed opportunities during his eight years in office.

“The invasion of Iraq has cost us the lives of nearly 4,000 of our nation’s bravest and brightest men and women. Fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, have been taken from their families and loved ones, which represent the greatest and most horrific sacrifice that any nation could be every be forced to bear.

“But theirs has not been the only sacrifice. So far, over 40,000 Americans have returned from Iraq with the irreparable physical and mental wounds of war - scars that will last for their rest of their lives, and will affect them in ways that we can’t even imagine. And hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have been caught in the cross fire of a violent civil war that has further propelled Iraq into darkness and hopelessness.

“And then there is the financial cost of this President’s mistake, which Nobel Laureate Economist Joseph Stiglitz recently projected will cost our nation at least $3 trillion over the next decade. What is most damning about this figure, however, is the lost opportunity costs that it represents. At a time when some children are forced to learn in crumbling schools, when too many seniors are forced to chose between putting food on their table and buying the prescription drugs that they need to survive, when homeowners wonder how they will keep pace with their rising mortgage payments, and most jarring of all, when our veterans, the very people that this President sent to war in the first place, are forced to wait for months to see a doctor, we are spending over $11 billion a month on an unwinnable occupation.

“That’s why so many of us continue to voice our opposition, day in, and day out. We’re fighting on behalf of every family who will lose a loved one while fighting in Iraq, every family who will struggle even though they live in the richest country in the world, and on behalf of the people of Iraq who want to control their own destiny.

“At this hour, at any hour, our nation is better than this. It’s far past time that we help restore America’s reputation in the world, refocus our energy on rebuilding our own country, and return Iraq to the Iraqi people. Our troops have done everything that has been asked of them, it’s time to bring them home.”

UPDATE @ 11:18 A.M. THURSDAY 3/27: Staffers for Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, keep reminding me her comments didn’t make it into the initial post, so…

“Five years ago the Bush administration mislead the American people into believing there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; mislead many to believe Iraq posed an imminent threat, and; mislead the nation about a false connection between the tragic events of 911 and Saddam Hussein. As we enter the sixth year of the U.S. occupation in Iraq, the most important thing Congress can do is to end this disastrous occupation and finally bring our troops and contractors home. The consequences of the continued are too great – We have already lost nearly 4,000 brave U.S. servicemen and women and more than 28,000 others have been wounded.”

The House voted 213-197 today to update the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, expanding intelligence agencies’ powers to match new technologies but not granting immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with the Bush Administration’s warrantless wiretapping, as the President demanded. See the full story here.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco:

And, in news releases…

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo:
“This is a call for us to come together and work in a bipartisan effort in the best interests of our nation’s security without diminishing equally important guarantees of privacy for American citizens. With this legislation, the U.S. intelligence community gets enhanced authorization for a wide range of surveillance methods without the blanket immunity for telecom companies that the President wanted. The balance of security and privacy rights is always hard to achieve, but I believe this bill finds common ground that enhances both.”

Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton:
“The FISA Amendments Act protects Americans against terrorists while at the same time safeguarding our liberties by striking a balance between the constitutional rights of American citizens and the needs of the intelligence community. This bill will provide the government the authority it needs to intercept terrorist communications, while safeguarding the phone calls, emails, and other private communications of American citizens.”

Most members of the Bay Area’s House delegation are among original cosponsors of the Right to Clean Vehicles Act, a bill introduced today which would force the Environmental Protection Agency to grant a waiver giving California and 12 other states the ability to implement limits on greenhouse-gas emissions from cars.

The bill — authored by Reps. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, and Peter Welch, D-Vt. – comes in reaction to EPA Administrator Steve Johnson’s December denial of California’s waiver, reportedly even over his own staff’s objections. U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., already has introduced an equivalent Senate bill, and as chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has raked Johnson over the coals in a Capitol Hill hearing.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, issued a news release expressing her support for the House bill.

“There is simply no excuse for the Bush administration to deny California’s waiver, or any other state’s effort to combat global warming and promote the use of cleaner, more efficient vehicles on their roads,” she said. “The Right to Clean Vehicles Act will give a much-needed green light to states taking the right approach to achieving a greener future and I am proud to support it.”

Besides Lee, the bill’s 58 original cosponsors include Reps. Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater; Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto; Mike Honda, D-San Jose; Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose; George Miller, D-Martinez; Pete Stark, D-Fremont; Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo; and Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma.

Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, wasn’t listed among the original cosponsors in Sherman’s news release, but spokesman Andy Stone just told me McNerney fully supports it as well — he just hadn’t had time to fully review it and sign on before the authors went public today, but should be listed among the cosponsors by next week.

House members Pete Stark, Ellen Tauscher and Zoe Lofgren rated perfect 100-percent scores in the League of Conservation Voters’ annual National Environmental Scorecard. Click on the names below to see how each voted on key bills:

Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater — 65%
Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto — 90%
Mike Honda, D-San Jose — 90%
Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo — 80%
Barbara Lee, D-Oakland — 95%
Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose — 100%
Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton — 90%
George Miller, D-Martinez — 95%
Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco — 20%
Pete Stark, D-Fremont — 100%
Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo — 100%
Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma — 95%

(Note that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rated low only because she invoked her discretion not to cast votes on most of these bills; traditionally, the Speaker usually doesn’t participate in debate and rarely votes on the floor.)

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee’s Strategic Forces Subcommittee, said this about last night’s successful shoot-down of an errant U.S. spy satellite:

This is good news; we acted quickly, we acted intelligently and we acted responsibly. By reaching out to the international community, we set an example for how all space-faring countries should deal with potential hazards like these. We enjoy the benefits of space technology and as a consequence we bear the responsibility when something goes wrong with one of our systems.

I would caution against using this public safety exercise as a validation of our entire missile defense program. This was an isolated incident that indicates our ability to handle a very specific situation with relative ease. Today’s events do not change the fact that we need to improve our space situational awareness capabilities and invest in fully tested missile defense systems that can defend against rapidly evolving and even unknown threats.

Progressives demand access to spy program: Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairs Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, today wrote to President Bush demanding that he let all members of Congress have the same access to classified documents regarding his administration’s domestic spying program. The letter comes as the House debate over extending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act gets hot and heavy, and follows a letter signed by 29 House and Senate members and sent to the President last week telling him that they will oppose any legislation that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies who participated in the Administration’s warrantless program. Said Lee: “It is imperative that the Bush administration give Members of Congress access to these documents before we take any further votes on this issue. After keeping us in the dark about the true extent of this program, it is time for the Bush administration to come clean and level with lawmakers who are concerned about its impact on civil liberties.”

Tauscher floats maritime safety bill: House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee member Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, has introduced the Vessel Navigation and Safety Improvement Act, which would instructs the Coast Guard to issue regulations requiring pilots to carry their own electronic chart devices — known as Portable Pilot Units, and including include laptop computers, global positioning systems and personal digital assistants — to provide an extra level of safety over the ship’s navigation systems. Said Tauscher: “The ecosystem of the Bay and how it affects the overall health of our communities is too important not to require the highest safety standards for navigating large container and tanker ships into San Francisco Bay, especially traffic transporting hazardous material. I will not go another day without knowing that we are doing everything possible to prevent these types of accidents. They are costly and environmentally dangerous but, most of all, they are preventable. Putting these devices in the hands of pilots, who provide an important service to our port, will improve navigation and protect our environment.”

Eshoo moves to ban waterboarding: Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee’s Intelligence Community Management Subcommittee, joined with Human Intelligence, Analysis and Counterintelligence Subcommittee chairman Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, today in introducing a bill to ban waterboarding. Said Eshoo: “It’s time to make a clear statement for the world to hear and understand, and for the Bush Administration to obey: Waterboarding is torture and Americans will not participate in it… The bill makes clear that waterboarding is torture, and cannot be used by anyone in the United States government, including the CIA… Now, from this day forward, let the world know that the United States of America will practice what it has always been revered for: Dignity, democracy and the rule of law.”

Tauscher pushes cooperation with South Korea: Tauscher and Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton, today introduced a bill to improve defense cooperation between the U.S. and South Korean militaries. The legislation would give South Korea the same preferential treatment for foreign military sales as is afforded members of NATO, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Seoul last year bought more than $3.7 billion worth of American defense articles, making it the largest cash-paying partner in U.S. foreign military sales, and South Korea has formally requested this status through its Foreign and Defense Ministries. Said Tauscher: “South Korea is a vital, strategic, and long time ally, and they should be treated as such. By upgrading their status to improve interoperability between our militaries and better protect the 29,000 American service men and women who are stationed in South Korea, it’s really a true win-win situation.”

McNerney is bustin’ out all over: Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, has a slew of public appearances scheduled for next week, including three “Congress at Your Corner” constiuent meet-and-greets: one from 1 to 2 p.m. Monday, Feb. 19, at Mountain Mike’s Pizza, 130 Hartz Ave. in Danville (to which he especially invites any San Ramon Valley High School students who are allowed to leave campus for lunch); the second from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20, at Panera Bread, 2533 W. Kettleman Lane in Lodi; and the third from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22 at BookSmart, 80 E. Second St. in Morgan Hill. Besides those, he’ll be meeting with Education Advisory Board and then chatting with West High School students Tuesday afternoon in Tracy; holding a roundtable discussion on the economy with the Brentwood Chamber of Commerce and local leaders on Wednesday morning; and attending a ceremony celebrating Morgan Hill’s wind energy installation on Thursday morning.

This extremely sad news, just in:

Congressman Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo, San Francisco), 80, passed away this morning due to complications from cancer at Bethesda Naval Medical Center.

Elected to office in 1980, Lantos was Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and one of the country’s leading champions of human rights. His commitment to this issue was forged when, as a young man, he lost nearly his entire family in the Holocaust.

Today he was surrounded by his wife, two daughters, and many of his 18 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

After being diagnosed with esophageal cancer in late December, Lantos announced on January 2 that he would not seek reelection. He said at the time, “It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground could have received an education, raised a family, and had the privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a Member of Congress. I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country.”

The only survivor of the Shoah ever elected to Congress, Tom Lantos was in his 14th term. His Democratic colleagues elected him chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in January 2007. He was also a senior member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Throughout his adult life Lantos sought to be a voice for human rights and civil liberties. He and Annette Lantos, his childhood sweetheart and wife of nearly 58 years were, as Lantos put it, “full partners both in Congress and in life,” and they continued their work right up to his final days. Tom Lantos was the founding co-chairman of the 24-year-old Congressional Human Rights Caucus, which Annette directed as a volunteer since its inception. He also founded the Congressional Friends of Animals Caucus.

Annette said that her husband’s life was “defined by courage, optimism, and unwavering dedication to his principles and to his family.”

The date for a public memorial service has not yet been set.

I’ll be adding testimonials from various VIPs as the day progresses, after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »