ACLU suspends NM chapter because a director joined Minutemen
Mood:  silly
Now Playing: INVASION USA
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Clifford Alford was board member of the Las Cruces chapter of the ACLU until the national organization discovered he formed a New Mexico Minutemen organization. To avoid having to fire Alford, the ACLU disbanded the local chapter, saying the Minutemen are racist.

ACLU man joins Minutemen, local chapter gets suspended

State officials say group will not tolerate racism, vigilantism in leadership structure

The American Civil Liberties Union may fight for those holding unpopular beliefs and taking controversial stands, but the ACLU of New Mexico suspended an entire chapter of the organization because a member of the board of directors is leading the state's Minuteman group.

The state organization suspended its Las Cruces chapter after learning that a member of the group's board, Clifford Alford, was heading the formation of a Minuteman group in New Mexico.

Gary Mitchell, a Ruidoso attorney and president of the ACLU board of directors, said the suspension of the southern chapter was a technical move to make sure the leader of the New Mexico Minutemen, a civilian border patrol group, no longer had authority to act or speak on behalf of the ACLU.

"We will not tolerate racism and vigilantism in the leadership structure of our organization," Mitchell told the Albuquerque Journal. "They are repugnant to the principles of civil liberties and the mission of the ACLU."

Alford has said he's not a hateful vigilante and that he would like to see immigration policy reformed. He has said that if the federal government allowed more immigrant workers to enter the country legally, many problems on the border would be solved. He reportedly scouted the New Mexico-Mexico border two weeks ago for sites to station his 42 volunteers to detect illegal immigrants sneaking into the country. His group plans to offer food, water and medical aid while reporting the illegal immigrants to the U.S. Border Patrol.

Mitchell said the ACLU was not trying to muzzle Alford. It is just a matter of not wanting him representing the ACLU in a leadership position. When Alford refused to resign, the state board decided over the weekend to temporarily suspend the 14-member southern board until new elections are held. Mitchell said the ACLU's rules do not provide a means for removing a single board member, so the entire board had to be suspended.

"We are not going to tolerate anyone depriving anyone of liberty without due process of law, not going to tolerate vigilante groups on the border without speaking out against them and without monitoring," Mitchell said.

Alford said the dust-up is the result of a lack of understanding about how the Border Watch group plans to operate. He said the ACLU didn't ask questions, "just attacked."

The ACLU has mobilized nationally against the Minuteman Project and last April stationed its own volunteers on the border to watch the border monitors watch the illegal aliens – reporting any civil liberties violations to authorities.

The president of the ACLU's Southern District chapter, former State Rep. William Porter, said he didn't know how the local board would respond to being suspended.

"We are not 100 percent happy with it," Porter said.

Porter said he does not support Alford's Border Watch group and would personally like Alford to resign but believes it is up to the local board to seek Alford's removal if that is its decision.

World Net Daily ** ACLU man joins Minutemen, local chapter gets suspended

Dems' disdain for the 'common man' shows
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Columns

Ed Lasky argues that the Dems have a clear disdain for working people, which shows in the way they describe Republican leaders' earlier careers. This, he says, is fed by the disproportionate number of self-starters in the GOP and inheritors and windfall recipients in the Democratic Party. An interesting read, whatever your viewpoint.

The rise of the disdainful Democrats

Senator Robert Byrd's previous occupation as a butcher never seems to come up when the press describes his history. It seems that mundane occupational histories of politicians matter only when they are Republicans. This is a method employed by the liberal media to demean Republicans, implicitly characterizing them as being made of "lesser stuff" and to disparage their intellectual abilities.

For example, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert's career as a wrestling coach is routinely brought up, since jocks are probably a lesser caste in the Washington D.C. pecking order. That his well-honed talent for inspiring his troops and creating a sense of teamwork are skills undoubtedly enhanced by his teaching history matters not at all. The media similarly depicts Majority Leader Tom DeLay as a former exterminator. His nickname, the Hammer, subtly implies a view of him as a destroyer, and this merits frequent mention.

In ways both subtle and overt, the Democrats and their press allies hold up as objects of derision those Republicans who have actually worked with their hands, or even those who plied their skills in professions which do not require a graduate degree. The American dream of self-starters rising to prominence is part of the legendary appeal of America. But the media refuse to celebrate these stories as worthy of emulation when they are accomplished by Republicans.

The most offensive aspect of the Democratic disdain for the common man is exemplified by their abhorrence of soldiers. While these men and women defend our shores and protect us from terrorism, they are routinely slandered by Democratic politicians eager to use the wayward actions of a few to indict all soldiers. The New York Times, the house organ of the Democratic Party, has always portrayed volunteers going into the military as dead-enders-people who have no hope of getting into or finishing college and are unemployables who have no way to earn a living other than joining our military. The condescension is overwhelming.

Howard Dean’s recent condemnation of Republicans as people who "have never made an honest living in their lives" simply is out of touch with reality. Au contraire, Monsieur Dean, for your characterization seems to apply far more readily to Democratic leaders than to Republicans.

Teddy Kennedy is a proto-typical trust fund baby: a man who would not be a senator, or a leader of any sort, but for his father's ill-gotten gains and any sheen that rubbed off him as the brother of two slain American legends. After all, Kennedy cheated on Harvard exams and has had a less than stellar history when it comes to his romantic life and driving skills, and much-rumored problems involving his sobriety.

Nancy Pelosi and Senator Feinstein have family wealth derived from husbands who engage in the very behavior often condemned by liberals: venture capital and LBO financing. Tom Harkin lied about his Vietnam war experience. Joe Biden cheated in school and plagiarized in order to draft his speeches. John Edwards used junk science to accumulate a fortune. Star Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton was a long-time board member of Wal Mart-the bete noir of liberals. Howard Dean is the Park Avenue triplex-raised, private-school-educated beneficiary of the Dean Witter fortune. John Kerry is a serial gold-digger who has an obsession with marrying wealthy women.

There are a number of Democrats who have earned fortunes on the basis of their own efforts. John Corzine, formerly of Goldman Sachs, used his immense Wall Street fortune to finance his Senate seat election campaign, and now plans to use even more of his millions, by the score, to win his state’s governorship. Frank Lautenberg, the other New Jersey Senator, is also loaded. He was the founder of ADP, which - gasp! – has been outsourcing data processing jobs from corporations for decades now. And don't forget Herb Kohl from Wisconsin, with a retailing fortune of his own, building up family-owned grocery stores, and starting Kohl’s Department Stores, only to sell it in 1979, and seeing it become a major retailing success story. A wealthy investor since then, he owns the Milwaukee Bucs basketball team. Like President Bush, Senator Kohl sports a Harvard Business School MBA. If he attended his graduation exercises in Harvard Yard, he would have been hissed by the diploma-winners from the other Harvard faculties, as is traditional in Cambridge. All of these Democrats used hard work and business skill to build legitimate fortunes.

Other Democrats, however, came by their fortunes with less work.

Hillary and Bill Clinton have each made a windfall in the low 8 figures from their books, and the ex-president has doubled his lucre with public speaking fees. The ultimate trust fund baby in the Senate, Jay Rockefeller, sports the name most identified around the world with robber baron predatory capitalism. He is a plutocrat elected from West Virginia. Why isn’t Thomas Frank asking, “What’s wrong with West Virginia?” instead of picking on Kansas? Another trust fund plutocrat is Senator Mark Dayton of Minnesota, whose grandfather built a department store fortune which has morphed into today’s Target Corporation, purveyor of discount urban chic to the masses. Senator Dayton, who is in his late 50s, has a resume unblemished by a private sector job in his entire career.

To be sure, there are a few wealthy Republican office-holders, beginning with President Bush. Perhaps the richest among them is Senator Frist. He inherited his Hospital Corporation of America fortune, but despite his family wealth, which he could have indulged in (as Jay Rockefeller, Teddy Kennedy and Mark Dayton did) as a way to avoid dirty work, he used his time to get his hands dirty in the noblest of professions, enduring years of arduous medical school and becoming a heart surgeon. With no publicity whatsoever, he has for many years traveled at his own expense to Africa to perform heart surgery on patients unable to pay.

One of the founding principles of America is that a man or woman ought to be able rise from humble origins to the pinnacle of power. Look at Harry Truman, for instance: a failed haberdasher who rose to become President. There are any number of other leaders in our history of not just humble origins, but also who experienced repeated failures before their eventual success. These people should become role models to be emulated, not dismissed with condescension and snobbery, as seems to be the current inclination of the Democrats’ leader. This potential of America to be a place to fulfill one's dreams has been a magnet for 300 years of immigrants. It is part of our national character.

A political class drawn from the ranks of those who have ascended on the basis of their own work and talents is far preferable to selecting from those whose background is shuffling papers or cashing checks from a trust fund. Democrats have adopted a Chirac-like attitude towards the common working men and women: shocked that they don't vote the way their social betters direct them. As in the old joke goes, "If I want your opinion, I will give it to you."

It may be a bit of a stretch, but the Democratic Party leadership looks more like the House of Lords and the Republican Party looks more like the House of Commons. Judging by its leadership, one of our political parties can legitimately claim the be the party of the common man and woman. And it isn't the Democrats.

American Thinker ~ Ed Lasky ** The rise of the disdainful Democrats

Black Enterprise: Let liberals opt to may more taxes
Mood:  sharp
Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

Black Enterprise Magazine has a great solution for Liberals who hate tax cuts, the IRS can let them pay more.

A Welcome Tax for Guilty Liberals

President Bush's bipartisan Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform should propose a measure to assist a neglected segment of society: the avowedly under-taxed. The H.O.T. Tax would give those who think their levies are too low the ability to pay the steeper tax bills they say they deserve. This is the truly compassionate thing to do.

The H.O.T., or Higher-rate Optional Tax, would offer relief to powerful Democrats and wealthy liberals who cannot stand it when Republicans cut their taxes. Look how lowering taxes has raised the blood pressure of these Americans:

♠ "I don't need a tax cut," Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., announced on the Senate floor. "It will not do me any more good. I can't buy more. I can't eat any more. I can't do more, and I want it distributed among the ordinary people who work every day."

♠ "If you think it's good policy to pay for my tax cut with the Social Security checks of working men and women and borrowed money from China, vote for them (the GOP)," former President Clinton told the Democratic Convention.

♠ "I am a traitor to my class," actor Paul Newman said. "I think that tax cuts for wealthy thugs like me are borderline criminal. I live very high off the hog."

♠ "I want no tax cuts and want to pay MY FULL SHARE of taxes to support the public good," Oregonian Harry Demarest stated on the Web site of United for a Fair Economy, an anti-tax-cut group co-founded by Chuck Collins, heir to the Oscar Meyer wiener fortune.

The H.O.T. Tax would ease all this pain. The IRS simply would add a small box to the 1040 tax form beside these words:

"If you believe you should be taxed at a rate above that assigned to your income bracket, please indicate here the higher rate you prefer. Kindly calculate your tax liability, and send it in."

With that easy step, congressional liberals and residents of Malibu and Martha's Vineyard no longer would have to keep the tax cuts conservatives keep throwing their way. Instead, they could send 50, 75, or even 99 percent of their incomes to Washington so the GOP Congress and President Bush can spend it even better than they can.

While this reform would increase taxpayer choice, it might generate little revenue. Arkansas, Massachusetts, and Virginia taxpayers already may pay above and beyond their usual top rates, though few do this.

When Massachusetts cut its top tax rate to 5.3 percent in 2001, it let guilty liberals pay the old 5.85 percent rate. According to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, as of June 15, only 930 taxpayers chose to do so on their 2004 returns, generating an extra $246,505.

Pro-tax Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., spurned the higher rate that year. "No, I won't" pay some $800 extra, Frank told Boston radio host Howie Carr.

"I don't trust the legislative leadership and Gov. (Mitt) Romney to make the right decisions, so I'll donate the money myself." How inspiring to see a confirmed progressive like Frank choose private charity over public assistance.

"Americans recognize, as Congressman Frank also figured out, that government doesn't spend its money wisely as is and already takes too much of what we earn," National Taxpayers Union president John Berthoud observes.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., sailed into hot water last year when tax returns revealed that he also paid the Bay State's lower tax rate. Kerry thus enjoyed state tax cuts akin to the federal tax reductions he excoriated on the campaign trail. Then again, perhaps he intended to pay Massachusetts' higher rate, but his calculator slid off his yacht.

Beneficent supply-siders should introduce the H.O.T. Tax in Congress even before the tax-reform commission's Sept. 30 reporting deadline. American liberals should be given the earliest opportunity to stop resisting tax relief and send the Treasury as much of their own money as their bleeding hearts desire.

Black Enterprise ~ Deroy Murdock ** A Welcome Tax for Guilty Liberals

Harry Reid: Dems refuse to address Social Security
Mood:  spacey
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid says that Dems will continue to block all attempts to save social security and will not even offer any counter proposals until President Bush drops personal savings accounts.

W.House pressures Democrats on Social Security

WASHINGTON - The White House pressured Democrats on Wednesday to come up with their own solutions for overhauling Social Security rather than simply reject President Bush's proposals.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said a legislative proposal by a Senate Republican to overhaul Social Security without Bush's treasured personal retirement accounts "calls the bluff" of Democrats who say they will not negotiate as long as the accounts are on the table.

"I think what the real question here is: Are Democratic leaders going to start coming forward with ideas and solutions or are they going to simply put up a stop sign and say no to solving this important priority for the American people?" McClellan said.

But he said Bush still felt any permanent solution to overhauling Social Security needs to include personal retirement accounts.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said on Tuesday that until Bush gives up private accounts, Democrats will continue to refuse to enter negotiations over Social Security.

Republican Sen. Robert Bennett of Utah said after a Senate Republican lunch with Bush on Tuesday that the president welcomed his proposal, which incorporates a plan backed by Bush to slow the growth of benefits for middle- and upper-income workers by linking them to prices rather than wages.

Bennett said he hoped to introduce his Social Security bill as early as next week, and asserted that some Democrats had privately expressed an interest in supporting it.

Another Senate Republican, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, plans to introduce his own alternative Social Security legislation that would avoid politically unpopular benefit cuts and tax increases but retain a private-account provision.

Congressional aides said House Republicans may unveil a plan on Wednesday similar to DeMint's.

The White House has shown increasing flexibility on its Social Security plan in a bid to attract support in Congress. The plan for private accounts faces stiff opposition from Democrats, and some Republicans are reluctant to support it for fear of a backlash in the 2006 elections.

McClellan said Bennett's plan "calls the bluff of the Democratic leadership."

They appear to simply want to stand in the way of solutions. Republicans are offering ideas and ways to solve the serious problems facing Social Security. I think that's what the American people expect," he said.

Washington Post ~ Reuters ** W.House pressures Democrats on Social Security

Coward Deanpeace claims Dem party is for small government
Mood:  silly
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Apparently, on the other side of the looking glass, Dems are the party of limited government while conservative attempts to keep people from starving a helpless person to death makes the GOP intrusive.

Democratic chairman blasts Bush

WASHINGTON - Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is accusing the Bush Administration of ignoring the nuclear threat posed by North Korea and Iran while mishandling the situation in Iraq.

Dean told approximately one-thousand supporters at a Democratic Party fund-raiser last night that the Republican party stands for "all the wrong things."

Dean says the Republican Party preaches adherence to "moral values" while failing seniors and low-income people in need of educational opportunities and health care.

Dean says that while Democrats believe in a "small government just big enough to get things done," Republicans "believe in a government just small enough to sit inside Terry Schiavo's nursing-home room." It was a clear reference to Republican attempts to keep the brain-damaged woman on life support.

WHAM 13 - Rochester, NY ~ Associated Press ** Democratic chairman blasts Bush

Florida Democratic Party Faces IRS Lien; $900,000 Shortage
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

The Florida Democratic Party is broke, unable to pay its bills and so far behind on its payroll and Social Security taxes that the IRS has slapped the organization with a lien. Party leadership is seeking an audit to account for $900,000 which went missing when a current candidate for governor was the party chief.

Florida Democratic Party Faces IRS Lien; $900,000 Shortage

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Broke and without enough money in the bank to pay its bills after the end of the month, the Florida Democratic Party has now been slapped with a lien by the Internal Revenue Service for failing to pay payroll and Social Security taxes in 2003.

The state party's budget and finance committee voted Tuesday to ask for a new audit to account for more than $900,000 it believes somehow disappeared from the books during the 2003-2004 calendar years when the party was led by Scott Maddox, who is now seeking its nomination for governor.

Maddox and successor Karen Thurman, who became the party's new chairwoman just last month, did not immediately return phone messages asking for comment on the findings.

While the party owes roughly $200,000 in delinquent payroll and Social Security taxes, the lien was against the remaining $98,000 in their account on Friday, longtime Leon County committeeman Jon Ausman said.

Ausman said it cost about $250,000 a month to pay salaries and overhead for the party operation in Tallahassee and that it had been spending more so far this year than it has raised.

The Democratic Party in Florida has traditionally gone through financial woes, selling its headquarters building in Florida a few years ago to get out of debt.

State vice-chair Diane Glasser of Fort Lauderdale said Tuesday she was confident the party could be able to meet its commitments.

"We've had these problems before," Glasser said. "I think that everything will resolve itself. Karen has already got commitments for money that is going to be coming into the party."

Ausman, who is also a member of the party's budget and finance committee, said the party's 2003 year-end audit showed $609,032 cash on hand. He said it netted $586,986 in 2004 when it raised about $18 million.

"I don't know how you start out with $609,000 and raise a net of $586,000 and end up with $269,000," he said.

Ausman said he was concerned about the audits in 2003 and 2004 done by Carr, Riggs and Ingram of Tallahassee. He said they should be held accountable, certainly for the failure to pay the IRS, if the audit proved to be flawed.

Mark Carr did not immediately return a phone message to his office about the audit.

Last summer, a report filed in July by the party's executive committee to the Federal Election Commission showed it spent $120,000 more than it has taken the first six months of that year, including a $30,000 deficit for June. That report, however, included 2003 carry-over information that skewed the numbers and gave the appearance of far more red ink, Maddox said.

The latest report comes at the front end of fund-raising efforts by candidates readying for the 2006 election cycle when the Democrats' lone statewide elected official, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, faces re-election and there will be no incumbent in the governor's race.

"It's very important that we reassure our donor base and all the Democrats that we're on top of this situation," Ausman said.

The state Republican Party, which operates with a larger staff at its Tallahassee headquarters, has raised close to $5 million already this year and has several million in the bank, a party source said Tuesday.

WKMG - TV6 Central Florida ~ Associated Press ** Florida Democratic Party Faces IRS Lien; $900,000 Shortage

NM Gov. Bill Richardson at center of another speeding controversy
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: Funny Stuff

Speeding incident a 'misunderstanding'

Gov. Bill Richardson is at the center of another speeding controversy.

According to a report Monday by KRQE’s Larry Barker, a state police driver for the governor refused to stop June 2 for an Albuquerque police officer who noticed the governor's white Cadillac sport-utility vehicle "speeding and driving erratically" on an interstate frontage road in Albuquerque.

Barker's report showed footage of the chase and a recording of the Albuquerque police officer. The report didn't say how fast the governor's driver was going.

A spokesman for Richardson referred questions about the incident to the state Public Safety Department, which called the incident "a simple misunderstanding," noting that the Albuquerque officer was in an unmarked car and not in uniform.

In a written statement, DPS circumstances, state police are trained to take evasive action and not to stop. Likewise, there was no procedure in place for the APD officers to make contact with the Governor's vehicle."

"They had flashing lights and a siren, but that doesn't cut it," Olson told The New Mexican.

Because of the incident, there now is a direct phone line state police can use to instantly communicate with Albuquerque police dispatchers, Olson said.

The report comes at a time in which state Republicans are airing radio commercials spokesman Peter Olson said, "There was no procedure in place for the governor's driver to verify it was indeed an APD unit. Under those blasting Richardson's "high roller" lifestyle, including his highway habits. One ad says Richardson "isn’t bothered by speed limits."

The speeding first was picked up on the political radar in 2003, when a Washington Post reporter, traveli ng with Richardson on the way to a political function, noted that the governor ordered his driver to go faster when they already were in excess of 100 mph.

There have been similar reports of Richardson's speeding since then. Public Safety Secretary John Denko has defended Richardson's high speeds, calling the practice a security measure.

Olson's statement Monday says, "The state police officer driving correctly followed the procedures mandated to safely and securely transport the governor. … The state police will continue to take every precaution and follow recognized procedures to ensure the safety of the governor …"

The New Mexican ~ Steve Terrell ** Speeding incident a 'misunderstanding'

Crazed Dems see conspiracy in earthquakes
Mood:  spacey
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

While not national news, this posting from a Dem news site says something about the mental state of the Dem base. This person implies that the President as part of some cover up caused the California earthquakes. That is right; at least one Dem is on such awe of the President that he believes George W. Bush can move continental plates.

Read the delusional fruitcake insanity blog yourself at (where else?)... Democratic Underground
Democratic Underground ** If I remember the election map, the blue counties in California

Pelosi calls Iraq liberation 'Grotesque'
Mood:  spacey
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) is calling on California Senator Nancy Pelosi to apologize for calling Iraq a 'grotesque mistake.'

DeLay Calls on Pelosi to Apologize for Comments; Democrat Leader Calls Iraq Liberation 'Grotesque Mistake'

To: National Desk

Contact: Dan Allen or Shannon Flaherty, 202-225-4000, both of the Office of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay

SUGAR LAND, Texas - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) today called on House Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi to apologize for her comments late last week calling the liberation of 25 million Iraqis a "grotesque mistake" and saying America's investment in Operation Iraqi Freedom has been "without success."

"Mrs. Pelosi, just like Senator Durbin, is trying to score political points at the expense of our troops, and she owes our military and their families an apology for her reckless comments." DeLay said. "The Pelosi-Durbin Democrats may think comparing our troops to Soviet and Nazi secret police is good politics, but it has no place in the leadership of one of America's two parties."

DeLay added that Mrs. Pelosi's comments, coming on the heels of U.S. Senator Richard Durbin's (D-Ill.) remarks comparing American prison camps to Soviet Gulags and Nazi concentration camps, further undermines the credibility of her party in the war on terror.

"Mrs. Pelosi's comments once again call into question the Democrat Party's seriousness on matters of national security," DeLay said. "Saying Operation Iraqi Freedom has been 'without success' and calling the liberation of 25 million Iraqis a 'grotesque mistake' exposes once again the weak and indecisive foreign policy of the Democrats' past."

Pelosi made the following comments on the floor of the House of Representatives during debate on the Department of Defense Appropriations Act: "Each passing day confirms the Iraq War has been a grotesque mistake. We are here today considering a rule for a defense appropriation bill that will provide another 45 billion dollars for that war. In addition to the hundreds of billions already appropriated and the end is not in sight. This money has been spent in Iraq without question by Congress, without accountability from the administration and without success."

U.S. Newswire ** DeLay Calls on Pelosi to Apologize for Comments...

50 Dems form cut-and-run coalition, 'Out of Iraq Caucus'
Mood:  silly
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Dem division on Iraq gets more acute as 50 break ranks to form cut-and-run coalition. While unlikely to result in a coherent stance on the Iraq war, it is likely to step up the already caustic rhetoric in the House.

Fifty House Democrats form 'Out of Iraq caucus'

As the party continues to try to find its voice on Iraq, roughly 50 liberal-minded House Democrats have formed a caucus dedicated to calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region, the (paid-restricted) Roll Call reports Monday.

♠ Excerpts follow.

The Out of Iraq Congressional Caucus, created last week, will to try to increase pressure on the Bush administration and Congress to end the Iraq conflict and bring American forces home. The group of progressives, led by California Reps. Maxine Waters, Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee, has been urging a withdrawal for some time but formalized its effort last week as part of its push to become a more forceful voice on the issue within the broader party Caucus.

Waters said many House Democrats have become increasingly frustrated with the party's failure to effectively challenge the Bush administration's policies in Iraq. She said the caucus was needed to help organize a message offensive and ensure that the White House comes up with and presents a plan to conclude the war.

While not calling for a certain date to bring troops home, Waters said the caucus will turn up the volume on demands for an exit strategy through rallies, press events and in the halls of Congress. She said ultimately the group, if not satisfied with answers from the president, will come up with a timeline for withdrawal on its own.

"The administration has a responsibility to say how and when," she said. "We will not sit around and wait forever."

Woolsey offered an amendment last month calling for the administration to develop a plan for the withdrawal of forces and to provide Congress with a report outlining the plan. Waters said that Woolsey's amendment is the baseline for the group and that they will push for nothing short of that.

The Out of Iraq effort comes on the heels of bipartisan legislation by Reps. Walter Jones Jr. (R-N.C.) and Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) calling for a timeline for troop withdrawal.

The Democratic leadership in the House, an aide told Roll Call, is somewhat divided on the issue.

"This is tough for the Caucus to come to closure on," the staffer said. "There's not necessarily going to be a Democratic position, there's going to be rhetoric. A lot of this is about how we're going to talk about it and finding the balance in the base of the party who want the red meat and want 'when are we getting out' and the pragmatic centrists who say, 'let's be careful in how far we respond to the base of the party.'"

The Raw Story ** Fifty House Democrats form 'Out of Iraq caucus'