Posted on 04/13/2008 5:52:37 PM PDT by flib
Tuesday, April 8th brought an onslaught of tan shirts to Capitol Hill. The Vets for Freedom Heroes tour stopped in DC to allow hundreds of Vets of Iraq and Afghanistan to visit with representatives. These Vets no strangers to missions, came with a new mission; Spread the great news of the progress made by our military in the Middle East.
My personal hero, my husband was among the throng of those who had served overseas. After inspiring speeches by the likes of McCain, and a host of congressional representatives and Vets, [barely covered by the press] the tan shirts spread out.
During a quick midmorning snack at Union Station several vets, my husband among them, met with Bill Russell an Iraq war vet from PA who plans to run against Murtha. It quickly became evident especially to some of the guys who were Marines that Murtha’s office would be a good stop to make. After all, despite exoneration of the “Haditha Marines”, no apology had been forthcoming from the Congressman.
Appointments had been requested by Vets for Freedom of every representative, yet congressmen Murtha’s office did not agree to meet with the Vets. Experience has shown that walk-ins are possible in congressional offices. So off we went; me, camera in hand with about eight or so tan clad heroes.
I was able to film just a few moments of our entry in the office with Bill Russell requesting a visit with Congressman Murtha. A staffer quickly made his way over to me and informed me that I could not film in the office because it was illegal. Not being one to break the law (no, really), I turned off the camera.
We were informed that the congressman had “back to back meetings” and we were chastised for just walking in and not requesting a meeting. [This despite the fact that a meeting WAS requested] A vet asked if a staffer could meet with us and we were told no.
The lovely blond middle aged women behind the desk inquired about the purpose of our visit. When Bill Russell told her the group was there to share their support for completing the mission in the Middle East as well as asking Congressmen if he planned on apologizing to the Marines. She quickly got defensive. “Congressman Murtha strongly supports the troops”
“No he doesn’t” I countered. (I couldn’t let that stand unchallenged.)
A bit ruffled by the contradiction, she claimed, “There are many troops who feel very supported by Congressmen Murtha”
“Not here- Any of you guys feel supported by congressman Murtha?” I asked. Heads shook all around “hmm… Nope, no one here feels supported by Congressmen Murtha.”
A Vet (obviously much nicer than me- told her that he would like some time to discuss the progress of the war in a civil manner. He said he personally wasn’t from PA, but wanted to know if the handful of vets there who were from PA could at least meet with a staffer. Again the answer was no.
Bill Russell let her know we would be on the hill all day and would be available to come back. He asked if we could leave cell phone numbers. Cards were passed through the group and handed to the receptionist.
A pregnant pause ensued and her “Have a nice day” was pretty much understood to mean, “okay, you can go now”. I stepped out to the hall and filmed the exit of the vets.
No one got a call to come back and meet with either the congressman or one of his staffers. But that was not the end of the Murtha saga for the day.
Apparently later on one of the vets ran into Bev Pearlman in front of the Cannon Building. Bev is the founder of Band of Mothers an organization of moms of service members. She was spending one of the three days she had a permit to stand there with signs in support of General Petraeus and our troops.
The vet shared his story of the Murtha visit with Bev. She was outraged. She decided to let the congressman know what she thought of a representative who did not have time or could not even have staff make time to meet with veterans of this conflict.
She did seem to think the vets were “thrown out” which was not true. Nonetheless, the vets were not given audience by even a staffer. In Bev’s own words, she got “pretty loud” with them, said her piece, and left.
She made it from Murtha’s office in the Rayburn building to the front of the Cannon building, and had been there with her signs for a while when [depending on the report you believe] at least 3 or at the most 6 cop cars, lights flashing pulled up.
A bunch of cops got out and surrounded this wisp of a woman, a mom of a soldier starting this third deployment. Bev had to share her ID with the police who took down the info, but did not arrest her.
She said she would not apologize for what she said or how she said it, but she did apologize to the police officers for putting them through having to do paperwork. One cop was taken aback since he was so used to having to arrest the leftie moonbats {He had another name for them, but my momma won’t let me say it). He thanked her for her consideration.
Kristinn of Free Republic went back to Murtha’s office to get their take on Bev’s “visit” They said she had yelled about the fact that the office would not visit with the vets, just as Bev had stated.
He asked why they called the cops and they said she was “disruptive to the office” [Not threatening-“disruptive.”] He asked when they called the police, they stated that they had called after she had left. Gee- I don’t think she was disrupting the office when she wasn’t there!
Kristen mentioned that perhaps next time they could use a bit of understanding, after all- her son was on his third tour and she was of course emotional about it.
I don’t know if they will heed his advice. I do know that it is highly ironic that the same congressman who claimed our troops were using “excessive force” in Iraq had staffers who call out multiple squad cars on a mom who just gave them a well deserved piece of her mind.
Thank you for the excellent report and for fighting the insurgency here at home.
Where’s the media coverage of the 400-500 veterans who gathered to support this war. I guarantee this would have had national coverage if 400-500 IVAW member would have gathered to oppose the war.
Bump for Craig Williams
Craig Williams will get some help from me. Thanks, brit.
I just sent the link to the article in post 17 to our son, a Marine. He moved to PA with his wife in November(her family lives there). He is planning on voting (for the first time) in the upcoming primary. I don’t know if he lives in Murtha’s district or not - but thought I’d at least pass along the information.
Speechless.
Thank you, Marmolade for sending the info and thank you both for him being a Marine and serving our country. :-)
Can I say I'm not surprised at all that you guys were treated that way by Murtha’s office? Somehow he has been convinced that he is untouchable and above scrutiny. I can't wait to see him go.....and I hope it's messy and ugly for him.
Well, I girl can wish, right?
Excellent report flib.
Lt. Col. Russell will be a guest on Steve Malzberg within the next week, the week of April 20.
Murtha is scum.
Prediction: Murtha says all kinds of outrageous things on any number of subjects. When the heat on him gets to be intolerable, the DNC will announce that he suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.
The DNC will use him as a fog horn as long as they can and then we are to excuse HIM, (and them by extension) because “the poor man is ill”.
Wait for it.
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