"I'll be asking why there's no select committee on income inequality. I'll be asking why there's no select committee on immigration reform. I'll be asking why there's no select committee on the minimum wage. I'll be asking why there's no select committee on anything that has anything to do with the lives of ordinary Americans."Lindsey Graham, in desperate trouble with South Carolina voters, is demanding that Harry Reid establish the same kind of select committee in the Senate. Dianne Feinstein, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee dubbed the idea "ridiculous" and "a hunting mission for a lynch mob." Although 37 seditious Republicans signed on, it was the brainchild of the 3 stooges, Graham, Kelly Ayotte and John McCain.
Blue America doesn't endorse many candidates for Senate. We're more focussed on the House, but there are 3 extraordinary progressives running for Senate seats this year that we are trying to help. We asked each of them what they think would be a more useful select committee that another one seeking to slime Hillary Clinton with made up conspiracy theories about the tragedy in Benghazi. This morning Jay Stamper, who's running against Lindsey Graham in South Carolina told us that although Graham "was oddly silent when our embassies were attacked during the Bush administration, he's leading the Republican chorus calling for a Senate Select Committee on Benghazi. By frivolously blaming the Obama administration for an attack perpetrated by Libyan terrorists, Graham has demonstrated a willingness to oblige our enemies with a knee-jerk assignment of internal blame for an attack against us. Lindsey and politicians like him, who knowingly-- and without justification-- inflict damage on their own country's reputation, serve as force multipliers for any person or group who would do us harm."
Like Grayson, Jay had his own ideas about a more useful select committee. But he wants to shape them in a bipartisan way that both Democrats and Republicans can get behind on behalf of the American people. "Instead of constructing elaborate revisionist versions of historical events," he told us, "wouldn't Lindsey Graham’s time be better spent working on solutions to our country’s present and future challenges? We know that Graham won’t support raising the minimum wage or expanding the social safety net. But why not focus on at least one or two issues that actually help working and middle class families. Graham says he supports the troops; what about a Senate Select Committee on improving the lives of the thousands of veterans who are missing limbs or living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as the result of two wars he voted to authorize? Graham supported billions of dollars in nationbuilding overseas; what about a Senate Select Committee on domestic Nationbuilding, to fix our crumbling infrastructure and create jobs here at home? Like everyone, Graham's life has been touched by cancer; what about a Senate Select Committee on Cancer? The possibilities are endless. For the sake of this country, I hope that Lindsey Graham can move on from Benghazi and find something productive to do with his time."
Similarly, Shenna Bellows, who's running for the Maine Senate seat currently occupied by domestic spying advocate Susan Collins, make a lot of sense with a message that resonates across partisan divides:
If the US Senate is going to spend its time putting together a select committee, I can think of a number of issues that better warrant their time and attention. Given the unprecedented infringement of our civil liberties by the National Security Agency, for example, the American people would be better served by the Senate's consideration of ways to overhaul the surveillance industrial complex and better ensure our privacy is protected.The Blue America-endorsed Democrat running for the open seat in South Dakota, Rick Weiland, circled back in another direction-- the direction his campaign is founded on. You can tell he takes Franklin Roosevelt very seriously and that he took it to heart when Roosevelt said that "the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism-- ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power." This is what Rick told us this morning:
Instead of playing “gotcha” politics with speculative future presidential candidates, the Senate should establish a Special Select Committee on Campaign Finance Reform in a Post Citizens United/McCutcheon world. Big Money has turned Abraham Lincoln’s vision of government-- “of the people, by the people and for the people”-- into the punch line of a bad joke. And that joke is on everyday citizens, seniors, working families and veterans all across America. The U.S. Senate, more than any other deliberative body, needs to take concrete action in this regard. A bipartisan committee of committed leaders can restore American’s faith in America. It’s the single most important thing we could do right now.If any of these ideas appeal to you more than another Benghazi witch hunt in the Senate, please consider making a contribution to one of these grassroots candidates on our special Blue America Senate page. Or all three of them!
