Edwards Takes Political Gamble with Holiday Offensive (from McClatchy, via CommonDreams)

[marmar]

Published on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 by McClatchy Newspapers
Edwards Takes Political Gamble with Holiday Offensive
by Jim Morrill

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Laura Belin plans to take her children to a Memorial Day parade Monday. There, at the urging of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, she expects to join others protesting the war in Iraq.

“Everyone knows that we’re going to have to start getting our troops out,” said Belin, 38, who’s from suburban Des Moines, Iowa. “And we need to start getting them out now.”

Edwards has called on Americans to “honor the memory of the fallen by acting to end the war and bring (U.S. troops) home.” The former North Carolina senator also is asking people to honor the troops with prayer or even a word of thanks.

But his appeal to speak out or attend holiday observances this weekend with signs saying “Support the Troops - End the War” has drawn protests of its own.

“Memorial Day has always been a day for honoring those who’ve given their lives for the country,” said John Sommer, the executive director of the American Legion’s Washington office. “It’s just totally unbelievable that someone would want to politicize the day the way Senator Edwards has.”

Edwards’ holiday offensive is his latest surge against the war, and it’s a political gamble.

This month he ran TV ads in Washington, D.C., and Iowa urging the Democratic-controlled Congress to defy President Bush’s veto of a war-spending bill that set deadlines for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. He dismissed attempts to compromise as a “concession.” .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/23/1398/

[Enrique]

1. I've never seen Memorial Day as a sacred holiday

is there anything to this, or is the press just straining to find something to write about.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. I think the American Legion has been trying to politicize

Memorial Day for years with all their trumped-up "patriotic" glorifications of war.