[Peace-discuss] Gold Star Father calls for pressure; Johnson says callers say "stick with President"

[Robert Naiman]

Let's get some calls in to Johnson's office to support ending the war...

Champaign Office
  Phone: 217-403-4690

.........

Veterans group unveils second ad prodding GOP
By Erik  Potter
POST-DISPATCH SPRINGFIELD BUREAU
05/18/2007

More than a dozen Republican members of Congress are targets of a new
ad campaign asking them to  break with President George W. Bush on his
Iraq war policy.

VoteVets.org, a national veterans organization opposed to Bush's Iraq
war policy, is launching the second of three TV commercials this week
featuring  former U.S. generals criticizing Bush's handling of the war
and asking the  congressmen to stop supporting the troop surge.

On Wednesday, a  coalition of anti-Iraq war organizations, joined by
local military families,  unveiled the latest TV ad, which will run
this week in U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson's  hometown of Champaign, Ill. A
similar event is also being planned in Rep. Jo Ann  Emerson's district
in southeast Missouri.

Johnson was one of the few  U.S. House Republicans to support a
nonbinding resolution opposing Bush's troop  surge, but he has voted
with the president in opposing a war funding bill that  contains a
date for withdrawal.


"We're planning on going to Congressman Johnson's office with a number
of  military families — to encourage the congressman that if he
doesn't get off  Bush's bandwagon, we're going to do everything we can
to move him out of office  come this fall," Phil Martini, a Champaign
resident whose son was killed in Iraq  last April, said at the press
conference in Champaign.

According to  Johnson spokesman Phil Bloomer, however, the TV ads have
elicited the opposite  response from what was intended. He said a
"healthy majority" of the calls to  Johnson's Champaign office have
been from constituents urging Johnson to "stick  by the president."

The advertising that VoteVets is running against  Johnson mirrors TV
spots focusing on Emerson. The ads feature retired Maj. Gens.  John
Batiste and Paul Eaton, who challenge the idea that Bush listens to
military commanders on the ground in Iraq. They claim that "his plan
for Iraq  endangers American security," according to a press release.

VoteVets has  been running the ads on cable television in Emerson's
district since May 10.  After today, the last day the ads will air,
VoteVets will have paid for about  450 ads, all of which ask Emerson
to change her votes on the Iraq war to  "protect America — not George
Bush."

Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville,  a West Point graduate, will not be
targeted by the current  campaign.

VoteVets, an organization of military veterans, spent 99.7  percent of
$842,096 in advertising campaigns against Republican candidates in
the 2006 election cycle, according to election spending reports found
on  opensecrets.org.

The group bills itself not as an anti-war group, but as  a
pro-military group committed to the destruction of terrorist networks.
The  group doesn't advocate a complete troop withdrawal, but it
criticizes how the  wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been run,
according to the group's website.