Author: Mark Pera

Dear Friends —
We received a tremendous response again this morning from voters across the district. Our volunteers and I, as we have been for many weeks, were out early greeting commuters at Metra train stops as they headed into the city. I can’t tell you how many people said, “You have my vote,” or, better yet, “I early voted for you!”

I have a great feeling about tomorrow.

While we were working this weekend to get out the vote on Tuesday by running phonebanks and canvassing door to door, Dan Lipinski was trying desperately to make up for lost time by taking cheap shots at our campaign and our supporters, volunteers and staff.

To me, it’s shocking that a sitting Democratic Congressman would attack the people — including hundreds of constituents — who have sacrificed to support us.

My campaign is focused on the issues that are important to mainstream Democrats: the war in Iraq, the economy, energy and the environment, choice, embryonic stem cell research, immigration and ethics and corruption and good government. Lipinski’s failure to provide true Democratic leadership — and his propensity for voting with Republicans — on these issues is at the very center of our campaign for change in Congress.

Rather than respond to my opponent’s attack line by line, I want to take this opportunity to tell you my thoughts about the people who are supporting my campaign.

Sandra Verthein is an organizer with Northside Democracy for America (DFA). Many months ago, I met with DFA and told them about my vision for representing this district. I told them that this campaign against a sitting incumbent was going to be a tough slog. DFA endorsed my candidacy and asked how they could help. We assigned them to Chicago’s 11th Ward — the home of the Daley family and my Chicago White Sox. Through the entire winter, the snow and near-zero temperatures, Sandra and her fellow volunteers walked the ward, street by street, and knocked on over 4,000 doors.

Ahlam Jbara is a Bridgeview resident, a parent of two young children and an Arab-American. She is the field director in our Palos Hills office and is in charge of our outreach effort in the Arab and Muslim American community that is such an important part of our district. Last week, Ahlam and some 75 volunteers sent out nearly 5,000 hand-addressed letters to voters throughout the district.

Howard Handler is the chairman of the Jewish Political Alliance of Illinois (JPAI), which was an early endorser of our campaign. He has been a tremendous supporter and he’s helping coordinate our Election Day plan.
Peggy Peterson is a volunteer for my campaign. She serves on a local school board. On Sunday afternoon, she brought her teenage daughter into the office to show her a little bit about campaign work. At 6:15 a.m. this morning, she was at the La Grange/Stone Metra Train Station passing out our literature to commuters.

Trevor Montgomery is a member of our campaign staff, an Iraq war veteran and an active member of the Illinois Air National Guard Reserve. He’s been my right-hand man at churches every weekend and he’s been with me every morning for many weeks at train stations from Berwyn to Beverly.

Betty Gutierrez has been a member of St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church for more than 25 years. She is a resident of the district, a mother and a grandmother. Before she retired, she fought predatory lenders and assisted first time homebuyers as the deputy director of the Greater Southwest Development Corp. Betty spends four nights of the week in our Chicago campaign office, calling voters to tell them why they should consider voting for Mark.

Dave Atwood has worked for months on our behalf in his home ward — the 19th Ward — through rain and snow. We’ve walked precincts together and he’s come out morning after morning to meet me at train stations in the beautiful Beverly and Mount Greenwood neighborhoods.

These are my supporters, I’m proud of them and I’d jump into a foxhole with any one of them any day.

Our contributors are also a microcosm of America. We’ve received hundreds of contributions from the hard-working people of Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District. We’ve also received contributions — more than 4,000 in all and averaging $70 each — from all 50 states in the Union.

Dan Lipinski has received just nine contributions from his home district in the last six months. The majority of his cash was delivered to him by PACs and special interest groups at a per contribution average of more than $1,000. You can draw your own conclusions about who’s running the real people-powered campaign here in Illinois’ 3rd District.

Our campaign listens to the people that the current Congressman has ignored. We’re the campaign with an office in two suburban communities and the city.

The best way you can push back on this attack on good people like Sandra, Ahlam, Peggy, Trevor, Betty and everyone else who has helped out is to spend some time during the next 16 hours before the polls open up to get the word out about our campaign. Tell people why it’s so important that we realize change here in Illinois’ 3rd District. Tell people that you’re tired of business as usual in Chicago, Cook County and Washington D.C.

You can also contribute to our campaign via ActBlue.

If you live nearby, or if you know someone who lives in the district, there is still time to get involved in our Get Out The Vote effort. If you’re interested, call our campaign offices at (708) 579-2834 and ask how you can help.

I’ll be at Union Station in Chicago greeting commuters around 4:30 p.m. this afternoon if you want to join us. Tomorrow, we will have more than 250 volunteers working across the district, but we can use more.

Thanks for your time and your support.

     Sincerely,

     Mark

(cross posted at PrairieStateBlue, MyDD, DailyKos and OpenLeft)

Looking at ActBlue early this morning before heading out to meet voters at a train station in suburban Oak Lawn, I noticed that, in the wee hours of the night, the contributions were still flying in from across the country. It’s great to know that when the campaign closes up shop for a few hours every night, our supporters are still hard at work, drumming up more contributions and spreading the word about our campaign for change here in Illinois’ Third U.S. Congressional District.

As of this morning, our campaign has received a total of 1,029 new contributions for almost $35,000.
We couldn’t have accomplished what we have so far without you.

We’re approaching the half-way mark of the “5,000 for Pera” challenge. With another 1,700 or so contributions, we’ll hit our mark. If you haven’t sent us a contribution already, please give today. If you’ve given, I hope you consider giving again.

Your contributions are well spent on direct mail, cable TV advertising and, of course, the important GOTV phase of the campaign.

I don’t know how many of you have seen this piece by Chicago Sun-Times reporter Carol Marin. The column (“Lipinski inherits ethical questions”)appeared in yesterday’s edition.

I know you have read about the differences between myself and the current Congressman on issues such as Iraq, choice, embryonic stem cell research, FISA and energy and the environment, but I think this story highlights another important difference between our campaigns and I hope you take time to read it.

Thank you all very much for your help. Please get in touch with our campaign at (708) 579-2834 if you have any questions. We’re here night and day.

For more information, please visit www.PERA08.com.

Sincerely,

Mark

— cross posted at PrairieStateBlue, DailyKos, MyDD and OpenLeft.

Dear friends,

I am so pleased to that the Netroots community – including DailyKos and many of the country’s most influential progressive political Web sites – has  united again behind our campaign for change in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District.

I want to thank the people at AmericaBlog, Archpundit, Chicagoist, Crooks&Liars, FireDogLake, OpenLeft and PrairieStateBlue — and anyone else I may have missed — who are helping with the “5,000 for Pera” push.

Just to give you a quick update, so far, we’ve received about 500 contributions for more than $16,000. The coverage we’re receiving across the Internet, and the interest in our campaign, is off the charts.

If you have already given to our campaign. Thank you! If you haven’t given yet, I would urge you do join the more than 3,000 people across the country who have and contribute today.

Everyone here, including our staff and volunteers, at the campaign offices in Countryside and Chicago are so grateful for the effort you are all putting forth on our behalf.

We know that you are aware of what is at stake on Feb. 5 here in Illinois. Voters here, like voters across the country, are tired of business as usual in Washington D.C.

With your help, we can change the face of Democratic politics in Chicago and Cook County and help deliver needed change to Congress. To keep track of this fundraising effort, and for news about our campaign, visit our Web site, www.PERA08.com.

Sincerely,

Mark

—- cross posted at DailyKos, MyDD, OpenLeft and PrairieStateBlue.

A good friend of the campaign here in IL-03 — Don Reed — asked me to write up a short piece on stem cell research to circulate among proponents of stem cell research.

He posted it here at DailyKos and asked me to cross post it. I think it does a good job of drawing yet another distinction between myself and Dan Lipinski.

The election is just 32 days away. Please take a minute to read this and keep following our exciting campaign for Congress here and at www.PERA08.com.

Thank you — Mark

Dear friend of stem cell research,

My name is Mark Pera and I’m a Democratic candidate for Congress in Illinois’ 3rd district. I’m writing you today to ask you an important question. Have you, like me, wondered why a Democratically-controlled Congress cannot override President Bush’s endless mistakes, including his opposition to stem cell research?

Part of the blame belongs to a handful of Democrats, including Congressman Dan Lipinski, who have consistently voted with Bush on many issues important to Democrats, including the critical issue of stem-cell research.
We have an opportunity on Feb. 5 to defeat Dan Lipinski in the Democrat primary. In a strong Democratic district like ours, if I win the primary, we are very confident we can win general election.

When it comes to the issue of stem cell research, the differences between Lipinski and myself are clear.

Lipinski has consistently voted against embryonic stem cell research. Even his support of HR 2807, the “Patients First Act” is misleading. His bill was crafted with the help of the anti-stem cell research Family Research Council and was supported by the Bush White House. It stacks the deck against embryonic stem cell research.

Today, an estimated 100 million Americans suffer from incurable disease and disability, which might be alleviated or even cured by stem cell therapies. Health care costs are going through the roof, but stem cell research may vastly lower the medical costs that have affected so many families.

Stem cell research offers new and well-paying jobs in the biomedical industry as well.

Democrats in Illinois, like the majority of Americans, support the research because it can ease suffering, save lives, and provide well-paying jobs.

Ideologues like President Bush and Lipinski have had their way too long.  It is time for government to be on our side.

We can fix this problem, but we have to fix Washington first. I need your help now so that I can be a spokesperson for change in Congress. Your contribution to our campaign will help us maintain our momentum and insure that we keep getting our message out to the voters in this district.

To read about my views on this issue and others, please visit www.PERA08.com.

Sincerely,

Mark Pera

Congress’ passage of its omnibus budget this week provided Congressman Dan Lipinski with another opportunity to try to have his cake and eat it too.

I think he exceeded everyone’s expectations this time around.

He, like many Democrats, voted against the omnibus budget bill. Now take a look at this press release, in which Lipinski takes credit for the federal funding for state, county and local projects included in the bill that he had just voted against.

How can he claim to bring home funds when he voted against the budget bill? This is simply wrong on so many levels, but it’s par for the course for Congressman Lipinski. On top of that, we have here the quintessential back-bencher, someone who is widely regarded as among the most ineffectual member of the House, brazenly trying to take credit for the collective efforts of the entire Illinois delegation.

While Lipinski was taking credit for funding initiatives that he voted against, he was also engaged in another shameless act of desperation, one familiar to those of you who have been following our campaign.
For the past three years, Congressman Lipinski has blindly followed President Bush when it comes to the issue of Iraq. Recently, he’s been scrambling to run away from his Iraq war record and his vote against this funding bill was the culmination of that.

My question is, What about that town hall meeting you hosted last month, Congressman Lipinski? There you told voters that you have supported each and every war funding bill to come your way because you firmly believe that President Bush would just leave the troops high and dry and unprotected if Congress refused to fund the war.

What exactly happened between then, when you were using the troops to justify voting along with Bush and the Republicans, and now, to make you flip-flop?

What seems much more likely is that Congressman Lipinski’s motivation is political. He is worried about losing his seat, and he should be. Democrats don’t want to re-elect a hypocrite to Congress. They want House members who will stand up to President Bush — something this Congress has failed to do — and bring this war to a close by capping funding for it. They want someone in office that they can be proud of and will stand up for them on the issues they care about most. Some members of Congress clearly seem to care about winning re-election and little else.

I pledged at the very beginning of our campaign that when I am elected to Congress, I will do my very best to end this war and to lead on the issues that Democrats care deeply about, regardless of which party controls Congress or who occupies the White House in 2009.

Our campaign has been about drawing differences between myself and Congressman Lipinski and, thanks in part to his behavior this week, I don’t think those distinctions could be any starker.

I will to bring to Washington D.C. the honest, principled leadership that the voters of this district very much want and deserve. What Lipinski wants is perpetuation of his family’s business and more of the same. If you haven’t already, I hope you’ll join us in the weeks before the Feb. 5 Primary Election and help us realize change in IL-03.

For more information, visit visit www.PERA08.com.

As an assistant Cook County State’s Attorney, I have spent the last 10 years ensuring that people are equally protected under the law.

I believe it is one of the bedrock principles of our country that every American is entitled to be treated fairly regardless of their age, gender, race, national origin or religion. The Employee Non-Discrimination Act (HR 3685), or ENDA, simply makes it illegal to discriminate against any American in the workplace because of his or her sexual orientation.

No American should be subject to employment discrimination or have their right to work revoked because of sexual orientation.

Congress has a responsibility to ban any form of discrimination in the workplace in order to protect the rights of all workers against the biases of their employers.
Given the opportunity, I would have proudly voted in favor of ENDA as the House approved it yesterday.

ENDA is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation. Its approval tells millions of gay and lesbian Americans that they entitled to the same employment protections as everyone else and that they do not need to live in fear of losing their jobs due to their sexual orientation.

Unfortunately, my opponent in the Feb. 5 Democratic Primary, the Congressman from Illinois’ 3rd District doesn’t believe all Americans are entitled to the rights already granted to them by our state government.

As he has many times in the past, Congressman Dan Lipinski sided with President Bush and the Republicans again yesterday and voted against ENDA. He was the only Democrat in the Illinois delegation to vote against the proposal.

In fact – other than the seven representatives who voted against ENDA on the grounds that it didn’t go far enough – Lipinski was the only northern Democrat, and just one of 18 Democrats overall, to oppose the bill.

While Illinois is one of 30 states that already has an “ENDA” law in place at the state level, Lipinski demonstrated that he does not believe that all Americans are entitled to equal protection under the law and that employment discrimination has no place in our society.

Every American has the right to expect to be treated equally. It is appalling that a Democratic representative from Illinois fails to uphold that fundamental principle.

http://www.markperaforcongress.com/index.php?Path=Public/Left/News/Releases/2007.11.08

For more information on Mark Pera for Congress, visit www.PERA08.com

I hope you have all had the chance to watch our new campaign ad.

If you haven’t, please take a look. We’re calling the 30-second spot “It’s Time,” because I believe it’s time for our Representatives in Congress to stop making excuses and to act to end the Iraq war. It started running on TV on Monday.

To view the ad click here or click on the image below:

Our troops are mired in a civil war in Iraq and there is no end in sight.

I don’t know how many candidates you have heard from who are willing to put this message up on the airwaves, but I believe strongly that we need to bring all of our troops home within a year and that Congress should cap funding in order to facilitate this troop withdrawal and I will act on my convictions.

Contrast this, if you will, with the record of my opponent — Congressman Dan Lipinski — who has voted time and time again with President George Bush and the Republicans on key issues such as Iraq.

Now with this pivotal election approaching Lipinski would like to run away from his Iraq war record, but the informed voters here in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District and across the country won’t let him.

Lipinski has never voted for, sponsored or co-sponsored anything that remotely resembles a timeline bill. On the contrary, Lipinski has voted twice for resolutions that opposed setting a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. He has voted five times to fund the Iraq war.

In May 2007, Lipinski voted against HR 2237, a piece of legislation that required the withdrawal of U.S. troops and contractors in Iraq within 90 days of the bill’s enactment. The withdrawal would have had to be completed within 180 days.

Lipinski has repeatedly expressed his support for enacting into law the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group (ISG), which publicly issued its report in December 2006. The report does not include any directives regarding a troop withdrawal. It lists a troop withdrawal as merely a “goal.”

On Sept. 10, Lipinski joined with “tier one” targeted Republican Rep. Mark Kirk, IL-10, and told a group that had assembled at the City Club of Chicago that he was also open to the recommendations of a panel of experts assembled by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), including many of the same people who participated in the ISG.

The USIP special report — which was released in September 2007 — called for a 50 percent reduction of troops within three years and a handover of security to the Iraqi military in five years.

If Congress acted on those recommendations tomorrow, then the earliest our troops would leave Iraq is November 2012.

That is unacceptable.

Congress’ — and specifically the Democrats’ and Lipinski’s — failure to quickly draw the war to a close could cost our nation hundreds, if not thousands, more lives, shatter the lives of countless more families and force us to spend billions and billions more on a conflict that is untenable.

I don’t sense any urgency on the part of Congress. Over and over again, all I hear is excuses from Democrats like, “President Bush will just veto any piece of legislation that doesn’t have the support of the Republicans.”

I am fed up with that kind of talk and the voters are too.

In 2006, Democrats went to the polls and made a clear statement. They swept the Republican majority from the House and Senate because they wanted Congress to end the Iraq war. The House has the power of the purse — the power to end this war and put our country on a new track — but they won’t use it.

It’s up to us to again call Congress into account.

Doing that starts with campaigns like ours — which has less than 100 days to go — continues through the general and Presidential elections and ends with a new Congress and a new Democratic President taking office in January 2009.

If you agree with our message, then get involved in our campaign whether that means signing up for our weekly newsletter, contributing to our campaign, blogging about us, coming by the campaign office to volunteer or walk precincts or just telling your friends and family about what we’re doing here in Chicago and the southwest suburbs.

Please keep in mind that our campaign is not only one of the most important of all the primaries in the entire country, but with its Feb. 5 election date, it is also one of the earliest.

For more information, please join the thousands of people who visit our Web site every month — www.PERA08.com — and keep following the campaign here in IL-03.

Thank you for your time, Mark

Before I get into the main part of my post, I want to tell you all how much we appreciate the generous contributions the netroots community is sending our way. It means a lot to me to see people all across the country embracing our campaign’s message — “It’s time for a change.”

Together we raised nearly $7,000 from more than 140 contributors during the last 14 hours and we’re back in the Top Five on Act Blue.

Markos and many other bloggers have done us a great service with their writing and the response from the readers has been tremendous. Thank you all very much!

…

On Sunday, my cousin, U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo and her neighbors, Vega and Steven Gerber, graciously hosted a fund-raiser for my campaign for Congress at their home in Atherton, California.

First, I should tell you that my cousin, Anna, a Democratic Congresswoman from California, and our respective families share a very close bond.

During the Armenian Genocide, both Anna’s grandmother and my own grandmother, Esther, escaped their homeland together to America. Their journey lasted three long years.

For Anna and I to stand together — a sitting Congresswoman and a candidate for Congress — was truly an honor. I don’t think our grandmothers ever imagined that something like that could happen. I think it is true testament to their courage, the tenacity of immigrants, and their pursuit of the American Dream.  

To introduce Anna to our friends and meet with hers was a great joy for me and my wife, Leslie. My cousin paid me the ultimate compliment when she called me a true patriot for having the courage to run for Congress.

Anna and I both believe strongly that, no matter your district, this race is your race.

Why?

Because every time your representative stands up in Congress to make the right vote on issues like stem cell research, choice, the Iraq war, FISA, privacy — you name it — Congressman Dan Lipinski stands up and votes with the Bush Administration and cancels out your voice.

Throughout his tenure, when the Democratic side of the U.S. House votes blue, there’s a red blip in that sea of blue. That red blip is Congressman Dan Lipinski voting the wrong way.

This past week, we saw the Senate stumble when its Democratic leaders tried to draft legislation to force the Bush Administration to change the direction of the war. We’ve seen Democrats in the House try and fail. The reason this keeps happening is because of Democrats like Congressman Dan Lipinski who are working against the wishes of real Democrats and the mandate from a majority of the voters.

President Bush has said in no uncertain terms that he wants to keep our troops in Iraq indefinitely. Democrats need to say, with one voice, that we believe the troops need to come home and this war must come to an end.

We need to do the same when we vote on stem cell research, choice and other issues. This is what the people who voted to change Congress last year want us to do.

Why have Congressman Dan Lipinski and the Republicans silence those voices?

Again, I want to say “thanks you” to Anna and all the people I met in California for their time and their contributions. Thank you Vega and Steve Gerber for your warm hospitality.

To the readers, thank you for keeping up with he campaign here in IL-03. If you believe it’s time for a change, we need your help.

Sincerely,
Mark

For more information, visit www.PERA08.com.

I’m writing today because I wanted to keep you all up to date on my campaign for Congress.

But before I get into the update on the race in IL-03, I wanted to tell you about an extremely important deadline coming up. I’ll touch on it more below, but on Sept. 30, we submit our third-quarter campaign financing information to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). It’s crucial that we show strong numbers to convince those who haven’t signed on with our campaign to join us.

As many of you know, my opponent is out of step with the values of real Democrats. It is time for change and, if you agree with me, I hope you will contribute to my campaign.

Let me give you a short rundown of our recent successes. We are very busy, working night and day, seven days a week to spread the word about my candidacy, but we still need your help.

This past Saturday we welcomed guests to the Pera for Congress campaign headquarters in Countryside. Many volunteers, including members of Chicago’s Northside Democracy for America (DFA), spent several hours in the morning circulating nominating petitions throughout the district. Even more supporters came out later in the day for an afternoon barbecue.

My wife, Leslie, and I had a wonderful time meeting many of you who have communicated with us over the phone and online during the past few weeks. We are both looking forward to having many more events like this. Please keep checking with us for updates. Better yet, sign up for our newsletter.

On Thursday, we cracked the top five “Hot Candidates and Committees”
on ActBlue, joining John Edwards, Senate candidate Mark Warner and Sens. Tim Johnson, D-South Dakota, and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. We don’t have $3.9 million like John Edwards, but we have raised almost $23,000 from 200 different contributors. We hope there’s more on the way.

In just one week, our fundraising numbers on Act Blue jumped by more that $3,000. We topped out at the fourth spot on the list and still ranked in the top five on Saturday afternoon.

To those of you haven’t already contributed, I hope you help us get back to the top five  many more times. This race is as important as any race in the country in regard to the future of a U.S. House of Representatives guided by real Democratic values.

In 2008, when, after eight troubling years, we elect a Democratic President to the White House, we can’t afford to have a Democrat in the House who regular breaks from his party on serious issues like reproductive rights, stem cell research and the Iraq war and joins with Republicans.

To those of you who have contributed, thank you for your generosity. If you can, I hope you consider contributing again. As I mentioned earlier, we are approaching an important FEC deadline on Sept. 30. You can donate to Mark Pera for Congress at Act Blue.

Our Web site, www.PERA08.com itself generated some great news over the weekend.  The Web traffic numbers we received have given us the statistics to back up the anecdotal evidence we’ve noticed — hundreds of people are visiting the Web site every day to learn more about the campaign.

On Sept. 11, our Web site traffic more than tripled compared to previous days’ traffic.

There were so many more exciting posts last week across the Internet. Folks put forth a lot of thought and time and energy on behalf of my campaign. To see that was inspiring.

We have to especially thank DailyKos for a lot of the extra attention we received. The readers of DailyKos drove more traffic to our Web site than the mega-search engines Google and Yahoo combined. ArchPundit, CrooksAndLiars, FireDogLake, OpenLeft and PrairieStateBlue also directed a bunch of new viewers to our Web site.

If you’ve read any of these posts, you understand why. If you haven’t seen some of the great work people are doing on our behalf, please visit the news section of our Web site.

I can’t thank all the bloggers, contributors and readers out there enough for producing the terrific results we’re seeing. This race is already attracting national attention and, in order to win it, we are going to need not only local but also national support.

So I’m urging you all to keep at it. If you haven’t yet, I hope you visit www.PERA08.com to get involved in the campaign. I’ll check back and try to read as many of your posts as I can. Thank you, Mark Pera

[Promoted by BooMan]

It’s been quite a week for our campaign here in IL-03.

The coverage we’ve received on DailyKos, FireDogLake, DownWithTyranny, Open Left, ArchPundit, The Booman Tribune and other sites has been tremendous. I want to thank you, the authors and readers, for your time and effort. That kind of writing has awakened the Netroots and it’s rallying people from across the country to our campaign.

For all of us, it’s inspiring to see bloggers hitting their stride five months before the Feb. 5 primary in Illinois and one of my goals is to keep you all engaged as we move forward.

Some of you have heard a lot from us this week and you should expect to hear more because this is a crucial campaign.

It’s also been quite a week for my opponent, Congressman Dan Lipinski, and not in a good way.

On Monday and Tuesday, just as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced the start of a public information campaign to counter Republican propaganda such as the Freedom’s Watch TV $1 million Chicagoland ad campaign, Congressman Dan Lipinski was sitting alongside targeted Republican Mark Kirk, IL-10, parroting Republican talking points, looking to the 10-month-old Iraq Study Group Report (ISG) for solutions to the current crisis in Iraq.

What does that say to voters when real Democratic leaders are on the Hill asking tough questions of our military and diplomatic leaders and Dan Lipinski is on the air providing political cover for the Republicans?

It says Lipinski is a true “Bush-Dog Democrat.”

Democrats need to hold Congressman Lipinski to a higher standard.

In terms of Iraq, you don’t have to interpret the ISG report to understand my position: I have advocated for months that we should start withdrawing troops from Iraq and set a date to complete the withdrawal.

Our troops are mired in a civil war. They have served honorably and it is time for them to start coming home.

Lipinski and Bush talk about benchmarks, but Lipinski and Bush keep changing the way we measure those benchmarks.

At the outset of the war, President Bush told the American people that Iraq would be a shining beacon of Democracy in the Middle East. As Iraq descended into a civil war, Donald Rumsfeld told us, “Freedom’s untidy and free people are free … to do bad things.”

In 2006, the Republicans said, “When Iraqi forces stand up, we’ll stand down.”

Now Bush Administration has set “bottom-up reconciliation” as its goal.

In six months, when there’s no evidence of “bottom-up reconciliation,” Bush will change the framework again.

The problem is elected officials like Congressman Dan Lipinski keep buying the Bush Administration’s lines. We know this because, time and time again, when President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney needed a vote on Iraq, they found a friend in Dan Lipinski. When Democrats pushed legislation calling for a withdrawal, Lipinski refused to get on board.

Now Dan Lipinski thinks he has a plan and he’s partnered with Mark Kirk to promote it. He wants Congress to adopt the recommendations of the ISG report to change the direction of our Iraq policy.

There are a few major problems with that. The ISG report does not mandate a troop withdrawal, but merely states that it is a “goal.” The Lipinski-Kirk Plan is simply more of the same. It’s nothing more than the Bush Plan, which calls for a return to pre-surge troop levels.

It amazes me that when Lipinski can’t partner with Bush, he goes out and partners with Mark Kirk, who wants us to keep 130,000 troops in Iraq and wait for progress that may never come.

I’m tired of a Congress that does nothing and I’m frustrated that we’re in the same position as we were two years ago.

The issue at hand is time.

Americans want to know, and I want to know, “How much longer will our troops be in Iraq?’

U.S. Gen. Petraeus has been unable to answer that question. President Bush has refused to answer that question. Lipinski hasn’t answered that question either. The Bush or Lipiski-Kirk “drawdown” was scheduled to happen because the surge troops’ tours are coming to a close. It’s time for Dan Lipinski and others to stop pretending this is something new.

In the last couple days, Lipinski has, however, provided us with some clues about where he really stands on the “drawdown.”

On Monday, he said he was willing to consider a report released by United States Institute for Peace, written by some of the same people who wrote the ISG. That report calls for a commitment of at least five more years.

On Tuesday, Lipinski said a faster drawdown is preferable, but only if it’s ok with Republicans.

“I think there is a point at which the President, if enough Republicans say, `We cannot go on this way Mr. President,’ I think the President will be forced to back down and change his policy,” he said.

It’s obvious we can’t look to Lipinski for leadership on this issue.

I’ve had enough and that’s why I’m running for Congress. If you feel the same way, then get on board.

Thank you for taking the time to read my first post. I hope you continue to follow my campaign. If you like what you’re hearing, I hope you support our campaign by sending us a donation of  $25. Please visit www.PERA08.com for regular updates.