Heinrich Critical of Congressional Votes Against MoveOn Ad

Unbelieveably, the U.S. House just joined the U.S. Senate in voting to condemn MoveOn's recent Petraeus Betray-Us ad. The margin was:

Democrats: 146 Yea, 79 Nay, 6 Not Voting
Republicans: 195 Yea, 0 Nay, 6 Not Voting      
TOTALS: 341 Yea, 79 Nay, 12 Not Voting

Yes, you read that right. I guess the House was tired of seeing the Senate getting all the fruitcake praise on this pseudo-issue, so Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) brought it up on the House side and got it passed. What's worse? Many Dems, including Rep. Tom Udall (NM-03) voted FOR the travesty. Here's the tally.

At least one New Mexico Dem -- Martin Heinrich -- has refused to stop making sense. As reported by Howie Klein at Down With Tyranny:

At the time the vote came down I was talking on the phone with Albuquerque City Councilmember Martin Heinrich, the progressive Democrat running against corrupt rubber stamp Heather Wilson (NM-01). He was very disappointed that the Democratic Leadership even allowed this idiotic voted to come to the floor. Martin's answer was what every Democrat should be saying. "There's a grand diversion for you... It's not something that I'd have been willing to support because it takes us away from the focus of actually making a difference on the ground in Iraq. What we ought to be voting on is a timetable to redeploy our troops."

What can we do to thank Martin Heinrich for speaking out and getting it right on this issue? September 30th is the end of this campaign fundraising quarter. The Heinrich campaign needs good numbers to show that he's the strongest Dem choice to run against Heather Wilson. I urge you to donate a few bucks NOW at the DFNM Netroots for Heinrich page at ActBlue.

Here's a released by MoveOn after the House joined the Senate in fiddling while our democracy, Iraq (and maybe now Iran) burns:

“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.'”

-- “Petraeus’s numbers differ substantially from the Pentagon’s own numbers – his show progress, and theirs don’t.  The Pentagon’s numbers are the official MNF-I numbers, which Petraeus himself called the most reliable possible.  Petraeus’ numbers differ, the military says, because he includes reports from Iraqi police – the same police the NIE said are corrupt, riddled with sectarianism, and ought to be disbanded.  The actual Iraqi government numbers are nowhere near as positive.” Washington Post, Tuesday, September 25, 2007

-- The NYT reported today that Sunni extremists are targeting Iraqi police and officials.  This is a new trend in violence – but according to the methodology MNF-I released last week, none of these murders would have been counted by Petraeus. New York Times, Wednesday, September 26, 2007