Jerry McNerney

While Karl Rove was dancing his Dance Macabre at the National Correspondents' Dinner (see Lorraine's diary), his Swift Boat Liars were firing up their attack machine and aiming for one of the progressive grassroot's top candidates. Congressman Jerry McNerney came up from behind to defeat a corrupt Republican incumbent largely because the progressive grassroots, including Democracy for America, backed him heavily. And, as you would expect from a man who resigned from West Point to protest the Vietnam war and who became an engineer to design wind turbines, Congressman McNerney has taken a real leadership role in the fight to get our troops out of the Iraq quagmire and to build an alternative energy infrastructure to help mitigate global warming. Congressman McNerney has already started to live up to the promise we all saw in him.

So now that he is under attack, I hope we can back him up against Karl Rove's jive. This comes from McNerney's campaign:

Yesterday, our campaign got hit with a one-two punch. First, a scandalous House hearing unearthed a secret document from a deputy of Karl Rove revealing that the GOP “architect” is targeting me as #3 on his political hit list.

Then, the National Republican Congressional Committee carried out Rove’s hit yesterday with “The Real Jerry McNerney” -– launching a slick Swift Boat-style web site that smears my record of service to you in Congress. The NRCC plans to promote this deception site by spamming voters in our district with over 100,000 e-mails.

This comes from an op-ed piece written by freshman Congressman McNerney for the Contra Costa Times and San Jose Mercury News last Sunday. Remember, Congressman McNerney resigned his commission at West Point in protest of the Vietnam War, then became an engineer specializing in wind power. His son is also currently serving in the military, unlike the children of most of the Republican Chickenhawks who support the McCain/Bush/Lieberman escalation. McNerney is one of our most exciting new Congressmen. I first learned about him from Democracy for New York City, which was excited about his run for Congress all the way across the country.

Why supporting the troops means opposing the president
By Rep. Jerry McNerney

Last week, I joined with my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats, in casting a vote against President Bush's proposal to escalate the war in Iraq...

In considering my vote in favor of the resolution, my thoughts turned to the members of our armed forces -- especially those who joined the military after Sept. 11, 2001, out of a sense of duty and love for country, like my son Michael.

I'm proud and heartened by their commitment to service and patriotism -- just as I am by my own son's commitment. And I'm concerned about their safety -- just as I was about Michael's when he was in the service. For me, supporting the troops is not rhetorical, it's personal...