(Please welcome Sen. John Kerry to Burnt Orange Report! - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
OK, I've not posted here before, but I decided to today, driven here by two events --
First, here in the Senate we've been trying to add a bunch of money for returning vets into an appropriations bill, money that the Republicans voted for in large numbers. But now, they're trying to block that money once again. Just to make it clear - they're blocking the exact same bill they once voted for. I mean, really, they really were for it before they were against it.
The other thing I saw: President Bush is fundraising in Texas today for his fellow Texan and diehard Roadblock Republican, John Cornyn. And just a couple of weeks ago, I met John Cornyn's Democratic opponent, Rick Noriega. Rick's a fine man, and he's a veteran of the war in Afghanistan.
The double whack at veterans ... well, I take hits to veterans personally.
So when I saw this hit on veterans, and I saw George W. Bush working to shore up the support of one of his chief allies in obstruction at the expense of another veteran, I decided I needed to speak out.
So, do what you can to help Rick Noriega. He's a veteran, endorsed by VoteVets.org. And he's a Texan, grew up in Houston, graduated from the University of Houston, and, well, I probably don't need to tell you much about Rick.
I set up a fundraising page here, and Rick's website is here. Anything you can do to give money, or volunteer, anything can help. You know how big Texas is. With so much ground to cover and 20+ media markets to worry about, it's going to take a big effort to get John Cornyn out of the Senate and overcome the help he'll get from his friends in high places.
You and I worked very hard last year to win this slim majority, raising money and campaigning with lots of veterans and other Democrats. But it's clear we have some more work to do to clear out all of the Roadblocks to getting a progressive agenda moving in this country. We don't yet have a working majority on too many issues. So I'm going to be dedicating myself to building a bigger majority - and that starts with veterans like Rick.
This is no one-time deal, either. I'll be doing a lot to kick the Roadblock Republicans to the curb. In fact, just today, we started a website dedicated to that: roadblockrepublicans.com. We'll be watching John Cornyn and all the rest of the party that seems to have no purpose but to block our progress. And we'll have some fun while we do it.
So do what you can for Rick, and help us clear the roadblock and get this country moving again.
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