The following U.S. House members endorsed Rep. Noriega in the U.S. Senate race: Reps. Al Green, Ruben Hinojosa, Silvestre Reyes, Chet Edwards, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Charlie Gonzalez, Nick Lampson, Ciro Rodriguez, Lloyd Doggett, Solomon P. Ortiz, Gene Green, and Eddie Bernice Johnson.
"Rick Noriega is the candidate in this race whose entire life represents his commitment to profound service to our nation ... military service and public service," said the members of the Texas Delegation. "From the halls of the University of Houston under an ROTC scholarship, to the halls of Harvard, to the Texas National Guard, to the halls of the State Capitol, to the mountains of Afghanistan after 9-11, and to the Texas border with Operation Jumpstart - we know that Rick Noriega is the candidate to best serve Texans in the United States Senate."
"On the defining issues of the day - national security, border security, health insurance for our children, and fiscal responsibility - Rick is uniquely positioned, by virtue of his life experience, to best serve Texas interests in the U.S. Senate," the members agreed. "U.S. military policy will long command the attention of future Congresses. Rick's understanding of on-the-ground logistics - as well as abilities and limitations - of our military will be a fresh and important voice in the Senate on military issues."
Charles Kuffner adds some insight as to why this is really pretty awesome and a success for Team Noriega.
Excellent. It may not seem like a big deal for a bunch of Democratic members of Congress to endorse a Democrat running for Senate, but 1) it's never a trivial thing to get a bunch of Democrats to agree on anything; 2) the more unified Noriega's support is here, the more likely he'll get support from the national folks; and 3) this is still a contested primary, however loosely that's being defined.
You may be wondering about that thirteenth member of Congress. That would be Rep. Henry Cuellar, and as usual, he's doing his own thing.
Various members of Congress also taped video statements of support which the campaign will be distributing over the coming days.
With every passing day, more information comes to light casting more and more doubt on the validity of the facts and conclusions presented by General Petraeus in his testimony before Congress.
With every passing day, more American soldiers and Iraqi civilians lose their lives in this unwinnable civil war. It is unconscionable and outrageous that instead of doing the people's work and ending this war, Congress chooses meaningless and distracting gestures.
With every passing day, America's frustration with politicians in Washington drops the approval ratings for this Congress to new lows. Congress is fiddling with an ad while Iraq burns.
We will continue our ad campaign to accuse the Republicans who are blocking an end to the war of a 'Betrayal of Trust.'
--MoveOn.org
MoveOn.org was started to get Congress and the press to do the people's business and stop focusing on the partisan bickering surrounding the Clinton impeachment. Ironically, less than a decade later, MoveOn.org is asking the Congress to move on and focus on ending the war in Iraq and do the people's business.
Sadly, the House and Senate took time out of their schedules to, "To express that General David H. Petraeus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq, deserves the full support of the [Congress] and strongly condemn personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all members of the United States Armed Forces."
I am not surprised that this vote came up. I am hardly surprised it passed the House and Senate. Most of the time, votes like this happen to help conservative Democrats get re-elected and appease moderate Republicans, but the list of people voting against free speech and the netroots is tragic.
It is hard to fault Democrats like Edwards and Lampson who have tough re-elections every year, but Eddie Bernice Johnson, Loyd Doggett, and Ciro Rodriguez???
Kos has the full list of our friends, and our real Texas allies seem to be Rep. Al Green and Shelia Jackson-Lee and Ruben Hinojosa at least abstained.
To the rest of the Texas delegation, thanks for focusing on issues that matter and showing how important our first amendment rights are. Now that you have the vote out of your system, can you bring our troops home? How about you start balancing the budget a little? At the very least, can we get a better tax system? I mean, bravo for expanding the State Children Health Insurance Program, but can you do more of that and spend less time voting on whether or not you approve of MoveOn.org?
The Young Democrats of America (YDA) National Convention kicks off in just 28 days in Dallas Texas.
We will be there July 18-21 to see what's going on and talk to young democrats from across the country.
A recent e-mail sent out highlight some of the speakers at this years convention-- Senator John Edwards, former Texas Agriculture Secretary Jim Hightower, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, John Stolz from VoteVets, and others.
The YDA Convention will also have training sessions, a community service project with Democrats Work, and our national officer elections. Feel free to register or learn more at their website.
Texas has been the home for majority leaders, House Speakers, Presidents and Vice-Presidents alike, but with the recent national gains for the Democratic Party, Texas has still lost.
On October 20th of this year, Burnt Orange Report saw the writing on the wall. If Democrats won the majority, Texas would be the weakest it has ever been on the national stage.
Not only did Democrats win, the party took both chambers of Congress and relegated our ambitious and power hungry Texas Republicans to bench warmers.
For a quick example, in the past week our two Senators Kay Bailey and John Cornyn have moved up the Republican Leadership latter to become Chair of the Republican Policy Committee and Vice Chair of the Republican Conference respectively. Two major and influential positions... of the minority party. Super, too bad they can't direct policy nor help the state without bipartisan support.
