BigBearJohn

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Mon Jan-24-05 06:26 PM
Original message

READ THIS!!! I JUST RECEIVED AN URGENT LETTER FROM SEN. BOXER!

Edited on Mon Jan-24-05 06:34 PM by BigBearJohn

Last week, more than 70,000 concerned citizens like you came together to sign my petition and demand the truth from Condoleezza Rice. Your support emboldened me during Dr. Rice's confirmation hearings to ask the tough questions that Americans deserve to have answered. I can't thank you enough, and America can't thank you enough.

Perhaps even more importantly, the groundswell of support you created forced the Republican Senate leadership to give us what we wanted -- not a rubber stamp of Dr. Rice's nomination by voice vote last Thursday before the Republicans dashed off to Inaugural parties, but nine full hours of debate on the floor of the United States Senate.

With your support, our voices are being heard -- in the halls of Congress, in the White House, and across the country. So today I ask for your support once more:

Help me add thousands more signatures to our petition to hold Condoleezza Rice accountable. Tell your friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues to sign our petition, so that when I stand up on the Senate floor Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm speaking with the power of tens of thousands of Americans behind me.

White House Chief of Staff Andy Card has attacked me as "small" for seeking the truth. But I won't allow this Administration to try to sweep the facts about our failures in Iraq and the war on terrorism under the rug. I'm taking the "advice and consent" role, granted to the Senate in the U.S. Constitution, seriously.

During the full Senate debate over Condoleezza Rice's nomination tomorrow, I intend to take the floor, joined by many other of my Democratic colleagues, to express my frustration about Dr. Rice's lack of candor during the confirmation hearings -- her unwillingness to level with the American people about the misleading statements she made about aluminum tubes, mushroom clouds, and connections between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda to try to justify the war in Iraq.

Condoleezza Rice refused to come clean about the actual number of trained Iraqi forces on the ground. And perhaps even more disturbingly, she refused to tell us why she personally intervened to kill an anti-torture provision in a recent intelligence bill.

I refuse to let these misstatements, misjudgments, and poor decisions go unanswered. So I ask you one last time, before the Senate debate Tuesday and final vote on Wednesday, to tell everyone you know about our petition. Help me find thousands more Americans who are willing to sign our petition and stand with us.

I can't thank you enough for everything you've done over this past week. Now, in these final 48 hours before the vote on Dr. Rice's nomination, I ask for your help once more. Join me as we continue to fight for what's right -- because the process of democracy is as important as the outcome.

In Friendship,

Barbara Boxer
U.S. Senator

P.S. After forwarding our petition to everyone you know, be sure to call or email your Senators and encourage them to join us in Tuesday's debate. Americans deserve a full and open debate about Dr. Rice's confirmation, as well as the important issues like Iraq, the war on terrorism, and the use of torture that underlie her nomination.

READ THIS!!! I JUST RECEIVED AN URGENT LETTER FROM SEN. BOXER!

SO IT IS ALL THE MORE IMPERATIVE THAT WE SHOW HER OUR SUPPORT