Author: Jean Hay Bright

Lincoln Chaffee’s win in Tuesday’s Rhode Island Republican primary bodes well for my race against Republican incumbent Sen. Olympia Snowe in Maine.

Unlike Snowe, who voted in favor of the war, Lincoln Chaffee voted against the Iraq War resolution in 2002, Chaffee won his primary against a conservative pro-Bush Republican.  I intend to win my race against one of the most hawkish pro-Bush Republicans now in Congress.

I see parallels in Tuesday’s Rhode Island vote to the Connecticut Democratic primary last month, when pro-war incumbent Joe Lieberman lost to anti-war newcomer Ned Lamont.

New England voters on both sides of the aisle — both Democrats and Republicans — are sending the clear message to their parties that it is time for this war to stop. It is a message that needs to be repeated at the polls on November 7.

A Strategic Marketing survey done in mid-July showed three out of four Mainers said the Iraq war was not worth the casualties and costs.

Snowe’s new TV ad — which was produced by the same media consultants who orchestrated the controversial Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads against John Kerry two years ago — does not even mention the Iraq War.  Nor does Snowe’s ad mention that she is a Republican.

Snowe is running away from her party, but only in her ad. In reality, Congressional Quarterly has her supporting the Bush agenda 82 percent of the time.

It is a feel-good ad that does not bear up under scrutiny. The ad claims that she supports women, yet she voted to confirm Judge Samuel Alito, the man who drew up an action plan to dismantle Roe v. Wade.  She claims to be supporting drug benefits for seniors, yet she voted for Medicare Part D, knowing all the while that the bill did not allow negotiation of drug prices, knowing that the “donut hole” would be devastating to low-income seniors.

Snowe is hiding from her voting record, from support for George Bush and from this disastrous war in Iraq.  She must be called to account.

Jean Hay Bright, Democrat for U.S. Senate
www.jeanhaybright.us

Jean Hay Bright is Maine’s Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, challenging incumbent Republican Olympia Snowe this fall. www.jeanhaybright.us

   Juxtaposition this: I spent most of Saturday, Aug. 26, in Kennebunkport protesting the Iraq War with about 1,000 other concerned citizens, who used the occasion of George W. Bush’s visit to the Bush compound on Walker’s Point to stage the very powerful rally and march….

….Meanwhile, Maine’s senior Senator, Republican Olympia Snowe — who voted for the Iraq War resolution in 2002, who voted for every war funding bill since, who twice voted for the Patriot Act, who twice voted to deny habeas corpus rights to Guantanamo Bay detainees, and who supports the President’s illegal warrant-less wiretapping of American citizens — used the occasion of the President’s visit to arrange for some family members of Maine troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan to meet privately with the President.  At least one of those visits did not go as planned.
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   It was an amazing sight to behold, the solidarity of peace activists, Veterans for Peace members, and people of all ages, rallying in opposition to the Bush administration destructive foreign policies, urging an end to the war, and a return home for all of our troops. The banners, hand-made signs, and walkers strung out three and four across, stretched for half a mile along the two-mile route through the beautiful coastal community with its gorgeous coast-side mansions.

   It was as if the wave of anger and rage that had propelled anti-war Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont to his primary victory over war hawk Joe Liebermann in Connecticut two weeks earlier had worked its way up New England to the coast of Maine in time for this event.

   The Connecticut vote was a validation for so many people that they were not alone in their concern over the war and the fate of this country, that in fact that their (our) numbers were large enough to elect an anti-war candidate, and to start to turn things around. That same validation hit Maine like a ton of bricks, and bodes well in my race against Republican War Hawk Olympia Snowe, who has voted with the Bush agenda in his first term in office 82 percent of the time, according to Congressional Quarterly magazine.

   The demonstration Saturday was the largest in Kennebunkport in the history of either Bush administration, and all the media – radio, TV and print, national, regional, Maine-based, and local weekly – were on hand to record the event.

   I was interviewed by Julie Mason of the Houston Chronicle, and was asked to respond to the report that the residents of Kennebunkport thought we were all being very rude.

   Rude, I thought. We shouldn’t be protesting our President’s launching of an illegal and immoral war that has killed 2,600 of our good military men and women, a President who promises to “stay the course” for the rest of his term in office, and we should be concerned about whether the neighbors think we’re rude?

   This is what appeared in the Aug. 26 Houston Chronicle news report:

    Jean Hay Bright, a Democratic candidate challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, said she can’t be bothered if Kennebunkport finds the protest rude. “I understand that Kennebunkport is very conservative, and that’s their prerogative,” said Hay Bright. “This is ours.”

   Meanwhile, Snowe — who voted for the Iraq War resolution in 2002, who voted for every war funding bill since, who twice voted for the Patriot Act, who twice voted to deny habeas corpus rights to Guantanamo Bay detainees, and who supports the President’s illegal warrant-less wiretapping of American citizens — used the occasion of the President’s visit to arrange for some family members of Maine troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan to meet privately with the President.

   At least one of those visits did not go as planned. According to this Boston Globe Aug. 26 article:

    The closed-door meeting Thursday at the Sea Road School in Kennebunk was arranged by US Senator Olympia Snowe at the request of Hildi Halley, whose husband, Army National Guard Captain Patrick Damon, died June 15 in Afghanistan. Halley said she used the opportunity to express her antiwar beliefs. She said the president responded by saying, “There was no point in us having a philosophical discussion about the pros and cons of the war.”

   I suspect George W. Bush thought Hildi Halley was being very rude.

Vote for the America you want to live in

Jean Hay Bright for U.S. Senate  (D-ME)

It has been a month since the Israel/Lebanon conflict began, and three weeks since I signed on to H. Con. Res. 450, the cease-fire resolution submitted by Congressman Dennis Kucinich. And, sadly, the violence has only intensified on all sides.

It is imperative that the immediate step we take is to stop the blaming, the charges and countercharges, and enter into a ceasefire, so that we may bring humanitarian aid to all the victims of violence. It is important that all parties engage in this ceasefire with good will.

We must also engage in education and negotiation to provide all citizens and peoples of the region security, economic growth and livelihood. We must approach each other with respect and accept the challenge of understanding the varied perspectives in which we are engaged.

We will not find the answers overnight, but we can start by asking the questions and listening to all the answers.

The phone started ringing early this morning (Aug. 9, 2006) with people enthusiastic about what yesterday’s Democratic primary vote in Connecticut portends for Maine this fall.  The callers agreed with me that as bad as Sen. Lieberman is on his support of this immoral and unjust war, Olympia Snowe is worse — much worse.
Tuesday, a majority of Democratic voters in Connecticut agreed with me on the importance of electing an anti-war U.S. Senator.  They voted to unseat incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, a pro-war Bush-enabler, in the hope of ending the Iraq war/occupation and bringing our troops home.  They saw in Ned Lamont a chance to refocus our energies on making America a better place, on rebalancing our budget, on rebuilding our infrastructure, on restoring our rightful place as a respected member of the world community.

I am counting on Maine voters to do the same thing in November — by electing me to replace incumbent Republican Olympia Snowe in the U.S. Senate.

“I’m running to end the war in Iraq.” I wrote that on May 26, 2005, in my campaign announcement. “It was wrong to invade a sovereign country which had not attacked us and had no means or desire to attack us. And it is wrong to stay there. Our presence there is escalating the violence against our military men and women and against the Iraqi people, violence emanating from an ‘enemy’ that we cannot recognize nor fight. The war has drained our coffers here at home to the point that essential services, including homeland security, are under-funded and are putting our own citizens at great risk. Our status in the world community is in shambles.”

That statement was made long before Hurricane Katrina hit our Gulf Coast, and we learned that badly needed National Guard troops from Louisiana and Mississippi were serving in Iraq.  That was before the regrettable milestone of 2,000 troops killed in Iraq was reached — a total now nearing 2,600.  In the 15 months since my U.S. Senate campaign officially began, more and more people in Maine and nationally have come to agree with my points of view.

Olympia Snowe is unabashedly a pro-war senator. She unequivocately supports the Iraq war.  She voted for the Iraq War Resolution in 2002, and for every war funding bill since.  Olympia Snowe stands with the President in his plan to build permanent U.S. bases on Iraqi soil.  She supports the Bush-condoned pillaging of Iraqi oil by U.S. corporations.

Olympia Snowe’s primary role in the U.S. Senate is as an enabler of the Bush war agenda, an agenda that extends to the trashing of the Constitution and our Bill of Rights here at home.

Olympia Snowe has twice voted for the Patriot Act, both initially and at its reauthorization.  She has twice voted to deny habeas corpus rights for those whom Bush is detaining illegally at the Guantanamo Navy Base in Cuba — human rights that date back to before the founding of this country.  Olympia Snowe not only wants to pardon President Bush for his violation of the Fourth Amendment by warrantless domestic spying on U.S. citizens, she has co-authored a bill that, if passed, would allow him to continue the practice, unchecked by Congress.

Olympia Snowe in January cast a symbolic Supreme Court confirmation vote for Judge Samuel Alito — despite heavy lobbying by womens groups and people concerned about protecting the Constitution, despite Judge Alito’s action plan for dismantling Roe v. Wade, and despite his belief in the “unitary executive” concept that whatever the President does is legal by virtue of the President having done it — including the more than 750 “signing statements” George Bush has racked up so far.

What’s worse, Olympia Snowe wants to do all these things on the backs of American working families.

Olympia Snowe supports Bush’s fiscal irresponsibility and the widening of the income gap with huge tax breaks to her ultra-rich supporters, while denying average Americans the tax relief, health care, Veterans’ benefits, bankruptcy protection, a living wage and constitutional due process to which they are entitled.

The American people want peace, not more discord in the world.  As demonstrated by the Connecticut vote on Tuesday, they understand our continued bullying presence in Iraq and other places around the world is contributing to a less — not more — secure future for our children and our nation.

Clearly the opinion polls, and this week’s voting results, show the Bush administration, and Bush-enablers like Olympia Snowe, are out of step with the hearts and minds of the American people.

It’s time to bring our troops home.  This November, Maine voters can start that process by sending Olympia Snowe home.

Dear Cindy,
   It was almost a year ago that we met following your speech at the WERU Full circle Fair in Blue Hill, Maine. We were both fairly early in our journeys, you to bring the message of the illegal and immoral war to as many people as possible, me in my run for U.S. Senate to try to stop it.

  Since then, each of us has been many miles. You around the country in your protest of this administration, me around the state of Maine in winning my primary and now heading for the fall election. Both of us are campaigning for peace.  I — as have you, I’m sure — have found many more people in support of our efforts to end this war than I have found wishing to see it continue. And most people understand that our work does not dishonor the troops who have died, but is being done to assure that no more parents, spouses, and children lose loved ones in this illegal and unnecessary war.

  Our paths almost crossed again last fall on the day of the 2000th death of a U.S. service person in Iraq. My husband and I were in Washington, D.C. that day, and went to the White House. By the time we got there, you had already been there and “escorted” away. We stood in silent protest with Code Pink.

  So I have thought of you many times in recent months, but never more so than yesterday.

  I was in Portland, Maine, for a reading of the names. I arrived after the reading had already begun, and stood in line to await my turn at the microphone. We were readings from a loose leaf notebook with page after page of names. Each person would read a couple of pages, then turn the book over to the person standing next in line.

 After the women in front of me had read about 50 names she got to the end of her pages, and turned the book over to me. I stepped to the microphone, and turned the page to the next list of names.

 The first name I read was Casey’s.

 The impact of that coincidence — that Maine’s Democratic U.S. Senate nominee who is working hard to displace a pro-war Republican Senator would step in at just that point in that reading — was not lost on the dozen people, all friends and compatriots, who had organized and were conducting the reading.  It was as if Casey was sending me, and us, a message.
 I wish you well as you continue your efforts. I, like you, will continue to direct my life to bringing peace to the world.

 I do hope our paths cross again many times.

 Jean Hay Bright
 Dixmont, Maine

I was opposed to the Bush war policy long before I became Maine’s Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate this year.  In fact, the immorality and illegality of the Iraq War was a primary reason why I am running for office.

For those of us who experienced the Vietnam era, these are troubling times. The invasion of Iraq and all its ramifications, of so many deaths overseas and so much neglect of  issues at home, is heart-wrenching.  I’m pleased to see that the weekly peace vigils all across Maine are increasing. The number of people involved in them is growing, and the positive response from passing cars — the honks, the waves, the peace signs — is encouraging.  

Here in Maine I have joined various peace and Veterans groups at meetings, demonstrations, rallies, readings of the Iraqi war dead, forums, marches, and in parades, including the Memorial Day Parade in Bangor.  This holiday weekend I’ll be marching with Democrats as a peace candidate in several parades. While most people in parades toss out candy, I and my supporters pass out my home-grown organic shell peas with the message “Jean Hay Bright says: Give peas a chance.”  

Some may see passing out peas as a gimmick, but it gets people’s attention, and we need more of that . We need even more ways for people to show their support for the peace movement, to express their outrage over the war, more ways for people to know that they are not alone in their anguish.

We need some protest songs that speak to all generations, like the songs we heard during the Vietnam War.  

A friend of mine, Patrick Scanlon of Andover, Mass., thinks so too.

Pat is a graduate of the U.S. Army Intelligence School, a Vietnam veteran turned environment and peace activist. In 1969, Pat held a Top Secret security clearance and was working in the Army Intelligence Bomb Damage Assessment Headquarters in Saigon.

He’s also a musician, and over the years he has used his talents to support such causes as nuclear disarmament and recycling. His experiences in Vietnam still haunt him, and they are what drives him to work for peace.

  When I talked to Pat the other day he told me, “Every day my stomach turns in knots when I hear the latest news report of another fallen soldier in Iraq, a war that did not have to be. War is very personal for the soldiers, their families and friends. During the Vietnam War we heard stirring protests songs on the radio, but not today.”

He, and I, believe that in order to end this war, it has to become personal for all of us.

Pat has written, sung, and produced two new Iraq War protest songs.

“I Have a Feeling I’ve Been Here Before” plays on the many comparisons between the Vietnam and Iraq experience. Pat says he’s finding the song rings true to those who lived the Vietnam war — whether in the jungles of Vietnam or in the streets of America.

“Where Is the Rage” expresses the sentiments of Vietnam veterans and others who find it hard that so many Americans are detached from the Iraq war. He wrote `Where is the Rage,’ he says, to help people feel a connection to this war, a connection to the experience of the soldiers and their families.

These are very powerful songs, the 21st century equivalent of  ‘Blowing in the Wind.’ People concerned about what’s happening in this country and around the world need to hear them.

The Vietnam War was very personal for Pat. The picture on the cover of his new CD is of the casket of his best friend from high school, PFC Timothy McHugh USMC, as McHugh arrived home from Vietnam at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia in March of 1968,

“During the Vietnam War we saw the tragic images of flag-draped caskets returning home. Today, we are not allowed to see those images,” Pat told me.

For my part, the late 1960s was a time of worry and waiting with other military wives outside a base in Gulfport, Mississippi, during my first husband’s two tours of duty in Vietnam. We watched the war on TV. We heard the protests. We wanted our men home, but we didn’t say anything because we were military wives. Yet I firmly believe the protests at home helped end that war.

I hope as more people hear Pat Scanlon’s new songs, they will be inspired to join the current protests, to speak out against this war, to keep the pressure on our politicians from the outside. I’m running for federal office because I want to work on ending the war from the inside. By working together, working both outside and inside our political system, we can and will achieve peace in our country.

Pat is not collecting royalties on his songs, and he is making them available to anyone who wants to use them to promote an end to the Iraq War. The two songs can be heard and downloaded from my campaign website, http://www.jeanhaybright.us.

I’m pleased to be able to help Pat spread his message and his songs. I hope you’ll listen to them.

Out of Iraq
Had I been in Washington already, I would have joined the 13 Senators who voted June 22 for the Kerry-Feingold proposal to redeploy American combat troops out of Iraq by July 1, 2007.

The Republicans, including my opponent Olympia Snowe (and, unfortunately, more than a few Democrats), are acting like the reluctant bridegroom, continually putting off the date for the wedding until an increasing number of improbable benchmarks are reached. For the reluctant bridegroom, it’s after he lands that new job, finds a better apartment, pays off the car, after the holidays, after….after…after.

For the Republicans and the Bush administration, it’s been after the Iraqi constitution is adopted, then after elections are held, then after the new cabinet is announced, then after the Iraqi forces are trained, then after quarterly security reports from the President turn up rosy, then after…after…after.

Snowe has reportedly sponsored her own amendment that would set out even more of these delaying benchmarks, saying in a statement (Bangor Daily News 6/23/06) “This is critical because the message must be clear — our presence in Iraq is in no way indefinite, open-ended and unconditional.”

Sure Senator, that’s clear. Uh-huh.

Many a bride has gotten her man to the altar — or seen her man “cut and run” — by setting a date and watching what happened. It’s a definitive moment.

We saw what happened in Congress this week when some Democrats with backbone tried to set a date for the big event. Congress did a “cut and run” on the American people.

Face it, the Republican truth is that they have no intention of getting us out of Iraq, regardless of how many self-imposed benchmarks have come and gone — or how loudly Olympia Snowe proclaims the opposite.

The 13 Senators who voted for the Kerry-Feingold proposal are: Sen. John Kerry (D-MA); Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI); Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA); Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL); Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA); Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI); Sen. James Jeffords (I-VT); Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA); Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ); Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT); Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ); Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).