Carpetblogger Weighed In

A few weeks ago, when the House Foreign Affairs Committee was voting on the Armenian Genocide resolution, Carpetblogger, in a rare burst of civic participation, organized all the people we know who have professional or personal interests in the region to write letters to their Member of Congress asking him or her to, at minimum, postpone the vote until, well, never.

As a former political consultant, I know the influence genuine constituent letters can have on a congressional office but I always viewed writing my Representative as something people who are not me do. Now, I am more like a regular voter than I've ever been (I complain about the garbage and streetlights in my neighborhood like the best neighborhood activist whack job), so I visited the website of Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D, OR-03) and sent off a letter.

I had no illusions that Rep. Blumenauer, who sits on the committee and is a co-sponsor, would change his vote but as a constituent who knows a little bit about the issue, I thought I should weigh in. The Producer did as well, as did about a dozen other folks.

If you have been living under a rock and don't know why this resolution is such a spectacularly bad idea, read this, this and this.

I'm pretty sure it was Carpetblog's organizational efforts that resulted in the postponement of the floor vote, much more so than the opposition of all the former Secretaries of State and the whole of the Bush Administration (though in all truthfulness, realizing I held the same position as the Bush Administration made me pause for a moment and wonder if I was actually on the right side of the issue).

The real point of this post, however, is that Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D, OR-03), failed to respond to my and the Producer's letters. I find that so very discouraging.   

Comments

[James]

Maybe you mean David Wu, D-OR-01? He's on the Committee and Blumenauer isn't.

[carpetblogger]

You're right James. Blumenauer is CD 03 and is a co-sponsor but not a committee member. He is my congressman though -- I know that.

I also sent a letter to Rep. David Wu, who is a friend and former client, and had a short discussion with his COS (a carpetblog reader!) about the issue. I disagreed with his logic on this issue, but whatever.

[Nanul]

Though I agree that this resolution didn't fit well with U.S. geopolitical interests and timing was not so "perfect," and it could complicate things in the the mass (or F*** UP) called Iraq thanks to Mr. Bush's cowboy diplomacy, it is sad to see how the U.S. role in the world has been so damaged that they can so easily be bullied by Turkey. This is an example of how military action in Iraq and Afghanistan has paralyzed U.S. policy abroad. I would have expected more constructive approach from you (I don't know why by default I think all Oregonians should be proponents of hippie-diplomacy?)
Have you thought about sending letters to the Turkish government and urging them to abolish the Panel Code 301? Or stop pumping millions of dollars to the pockets of lobbiests in Washington and have enough courage to face their past and don't set up a governmental committee to organize celebrations of the birthday of Talaat Pasha (who is basically the architecture of the Armenian genocide).

[R]

I agree Nanul. How about a letter campaign to the Turkish Government to get it to open the border with Armenia.

[carpetblogger]

I have got a lot of letters to write! After the ones you suggest, I will write one to the extremely well-funded, extremely vocal, extremely small minority in the US, suggesting they devote their considerable resources and energy to advocating for democracy in their small nation, rather than profiting from its corrupt, authoritarian regime.

[R]

That's rich coming from someone who lives off the avails of an even more corrupt, authoritarian regime. Perhaps prior to writing that letter you should stop in on "their small nation" on the way to your next visit to Azerbaijan. Then you can judge.