MoveOn Ad to Criticize Senator Levin for voting against Feingold Amendment

MoveOn.org

Yesterday, 29 senators, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, voted to end the Iraq war by March 2008. But instead of joining them, Senator Carl Levin—who holds a powerful position as the head of the Armed Services Committee—struck out at his colleagues. Levin basically said that to end the war in this way would undermine our troops.

MoveOn's about supporting leaders when they lead, and pushing them when they don't. And now's a time to push: Democratic leaders like Carl Levin shouldn't be standing in the way of the momentum to end the war.
We're airing a radio ad in Michigan highlighting his vote so his constituents—most of whom oppose the war—know what's going on. Can you chip in $25 to send Sen. Levin a strong message that voters are counting on him to end the war? Click below to listen to the ad and contribute.

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Yesterday's vote was on the Feingold-Reid amendment—a plan that reflects what most folks want: an end to the war in Iraq by early 2008. Sen. Levin is a key member of the Senate, whose votes can influence a lot of other senators. His actions yesterday were a big failure of leadership.

His vote was especially disappointing because Sen. Levin has been a strong ally in the fight to end the war—he even opposed the war from the beginning.

Worse, when asked about his vote against the Feingold-Reid amendment, Senator Levin said, "We don't want to send the message to the troops' that Congress does not support them." He basically implied that voting to end the war is somehow not supporting the troops.

Senator Levin is using Republican talking points to discredit Democratic efforts to end the war. That's just outrageous. Now is the time for Democrats to be pushing harder for timelines to end the war—not holding back.

Last week, 11 Republicans went to White House to tell the president that they couldn't continue to stand by his reckless policy. And yesterday, a number of Republican senators went on record against the president by supporting a non-binding measure to set enforceable benchmarks for the Iraqi government.

Add that to a growing chorus of military leaders pushing the president to disengage from Iraq and you get a clear message: It is time to take strong action to bring our troops home.

And that's what voters are expecting Democratic leaders in Congress to do. Please contribute $25 so we can send that message to Sen. Levin.

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