Peace activist Cindy Sheehan wants to snatch House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's congressional seat from her in November, but first she's going to need the help - and signatures - of 10,198 friends and supporters.
I'd like the kind of catfight we're seeing right now with the Hildebeast and 'Bamer. Lots of shrieking, please ...
Sheehan was at San Francisco City Hall on Friday to take out papers for her independent run for Congress, but without those signatures from voters in the district, her name won't show up on the ballot. "It's an uphill battle," said Sheehan, who vowed to run against Pelosi in July after the speaker refused to start impeachment proceedings against President George Bush. "But I'm excited about the signature-gathering process. It's going to be an opportunity to talk to people about our campaign."
Since moving from Dixon to San Francisco's Mission District, she's been campaigning virtually full time. To get the signatures, equal to 3 percent of the district voters registered for the 2006 general election, the campaign will have people setting up ironing boards and card tables on street corners throughout the city, seeking voters who want an alternative to Pelosi. Sheehan has until Aug. 8 to collect the needed signatures.
Getting on the ballot will be the easy part for Sheehan. If she becomes a recognized candidate, she'll be challenging one of the best-known and most powerful Democrats in the country in Pelosi, a 10-term incumbent who routinely collects around 80 percent of the vote in the San Francisco-only district.
Election challenges are nothing new to Pelosi, who has faced token Republican opposition in most of her November races, along with occasional primary challenges. But since she beat former San Francisco Supervisor Harry Britt in the 1987 special election to replace the late Rep. Sala Burton, Pelosi's political resume has been short of opponents anyone other than local political junkies has ever heard of.
Sheehan has name recognition, particularly for her Camp Casey crusade. "I said last year that I was going to take a break (from the anti-war movement) and then come back," Sheehan said in an interview at her Mission Street campaign headquarters.
But when the president commuted White House aide Scooter Libby's prison sentence last summer, she said, she decided "that seeing George Bush impeached would be a victory for humanity."
Calls for impeachment from Sheehan and other progressives didn't move Pelosi, who already had declared that impeachment was "off the table" when it came to the Democratic congressional agenda. "In this political environment, the speaker has to work for those things that are possible," said Brendan Daly, a spokesman for Pelosi. An impeachment effort, he said, "would be divisive, we couldn't get the votes, and we would have to spend all our time on it."
There are plenty of congressional Democrats, especially in the Bay Area, who don't agree, including Reps. Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee and Pete Stark, along with other progressives, both in and out of office.
Impeachment isn't Sheehan's only concern. Pelosi's refusal to vote for an immediate end to the Iraq war and to support single-payer health care shows she's out of touch with San Francisco's progressive roots, Sheehan said. "I'll represent everyone in San Francisco, not just the corporate elite," she said. "I'm working class, my family was working class, and we have struggled the same way our neighbors here in San Francisco have struggled."
The speaker will get an early look at the unhappiness of the city's progressives, because she's being challenged by local activist Shirley Golub in the June 3 Democratic primary. "I've just had the sense from people I've talked to that (Pelosi) hasn't done what people in the community want her to do," Golub said. "People now have a choice, and they haven't had a Democratic choice for a long, long time."
Despite the upbeat talk, Sheehan and Golub, along with Republican Dana Walsh and Libertarian Philip Berg in November, are the longest of longshots to give Pelosi even a moment's worry on election day. In a district where Democrats outnumber Republicans 56 percent to 10 percent and a state where incumbents almost never lose, a party leader like Pelosi has every right to be making plans for her next term in office.
The odds don't bother Sheehan, who has raised more than $100,000 for her race, most of it from outside the district. "Even people who I won't represent are willing to back me, because they know what I'll do in office," she said. "Many people in San Francisco know me, and they know my persistence.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/27/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Note to writer: NEVER put "Cindy Sheehan" and "snatch" in the same sentence again.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/27/2008 6:36 Comments ||
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#2
Note to writer: NEVER put "Cindy Sheehan" and "snatch" in the same sentence again.
#5
*I* think she'd make a good replacement for Nancy - perfect for the district and having zero influence in Congress. The Cynthia McKinney of California.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/27/2008 10:40 Comments ||
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#6
Suggestion Cindy: Set your ironing board up in front of the USMC Recruiting Office for all your Code Pinko buddies. When not getting signatures you could take in a little uniform work for campaign expenses.
#9
I want all you San Francisco Rantburgers to find out what you can do to make sure Cindy gets all the signatures she needs. Hell, give her $20 for her campaign while you're at it. It will be worth it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/27/2008 18:05 Comments ||
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#10
I am rooting for her. I want to see San Fransisco's death grip on regional politics broken. Pelosi can go to hell with San Fransisco.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/27/2008 19:30 Comments ||
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#12
A serious question for all - does she have any chance? I lived through the Obama-Keyes race, which probably sets the standard for worst margin other than unopposed - Keyes finished with 27%, which was functionally 0%.
Somehow I think mother sheehan may do better, but I'm unfamiliar with the oddities of SF politics, as odd they are.
Chief of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Altaf Hussain and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), leader Maulana Fazal-ur Rehman Saturday exchanged views on prevailing political situation of the country during a telephonic conversion. MQM and JUI leaders had detailed deliberations on the overall political situation and the national integrity, said a statement issued by MQM here. Both the leaders called for integrated efforts by all political entities to bring out the country, what they called as, a crisis confronting Pakistan.
Is there something wrong with me that I find this "story" amusing?
A Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member of the National Assembly (MNA) and 60 of his armed fellows on Saturday allegedly tortured a Punjab Food Department official in Raiwind for stopping his [MNAs] wheat-laden tractor trolley, the Express News has reported.
The channel said that Food Department official Asad Gull seized the tractor trolley of MNA Mazhar Hayat Khan for transporting wheat without carrying the required documents. An angered Khan along with around 60 armed men reached the scene and tortured Gull. They also retrieved the trolley from him.
The home secretary and Capital City Police Officer Malik Iqbal later directed the area police to register a case against the MNA. Khan told the channel that he had been falsely implicated in the case, and that a thorough investigation would prove him innocent.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2008 00:00 ||
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MULTAN: Nine members of a family including four children and two women were killed in Kadia Shah village, Bahawalpur district, on Friday night.
The attackers used machetes and guns to kill the 45-year-old farmer, his wife, sons, daughter-in-law and four grandchildren, who were between the ages of four and ten years. Police officials say the carnage may have been caused by an old enmity over a land dispute, AP reported. The victims were identified as Haji Ibrahim, Faizan Mai, Muhammad Farooq, Abdur Rehman, Muhammad Yousaf, Ruqayya Bibi, Zainab, Khamsa, and Hafsa.
Senior police officials of the area are investigating the case but no arrests have yet been made, APP reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/27/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The attackers used machetes and guns to kill the 45-year-old farmer, his wife, sons, daughter-in-law and four grandchildren, who were between the ages of four and ten years.
ahh the pastoral life.. charmingly simple and serenely idyllic
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Chief of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Altaf Hussain and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), leader Maulana Fazal-ur Rehman Saturday exchanged views on prevailing political situation of the country during a telephonic conversion. MQM and JUI leaders had detailed deliberations on the overall political situation and the national integrity, said a statement issued by MQM here. Both the leaders called for integrated efforts by all political entities to bring out the country, what they called as, a crisis confronting Pakistan.
