Taking on Pelosi

THE ANTIWAR MOVEMENT , buoyed by Cindy Sheehan and polls showing a majority of Americans question or outright oppose the occupation of Iraq, jumped back into the news this weekend with a series of major rallies that drew hundreds of thousands of people. In San Francisco some 50,000 marched from Dolores Park to Jefferson Square in a loud and festive event.

But the local leadership of the Democratic Party – starting with House minority leader Nancy Pelosi and Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein – were visibly absent, missing in action and ducking an opportunity not only to attack the Bush administration but to put the party on the side of what is now the mainstream of public opinion.

In fact, the only elected Democrat who spoke was Assembly member Mark Leno. And the only San Francisco elected official on the stage was Sup. Ross Mirkarimi. "I was astonished," Mirkarimi told us later. "Where were all the electeds?"

Obviously, protest groups didn't want to fill their speakers list with politicians, but if any of the rest of the Democratic Party leadership had wanted to make a statement against the war, they wouldn't have been turned away. In fact, they could have just shown up at the rally and made their presence known. But of all the top Democrats we contacted, none (except Leno) were there – and none have much of an excuse. Pelosi? Missing, won't tell us why. Boxer? Not there, no explanation. Feinstein? Not there, won't explain why not. Senator Carole Migden? Out of town. Mayor Gavin Newsom? Out of town. Both Newsom and Migden could have at least sent a statement of support (that's what Rep. Barbara Lee, who was speaking at the march in Washington, DC, did), and the organizers of the march told us they would have been happy to read those statements. But nothing arrived.

What's happening here is the utter failure of the Democratic Party to take the lead on one of the most important issues of our time. Pelosi has repeatedly voted and made statements supportive of Bush's war policies and has never taken on the role of an antiwar leader. She won't even sign on to Rep. Lynn Woolsey's resolution calling for a withdrawal of US forces. In fact, San Francisco's congressional representative is helping steer the party down a course that not only leads to continuing warfare and death but will also undermine any hope of taking Congress back from the Republicans.

It raises not only the question of Pelosi's national leadership but of her ability to represent perhaps the most antiwar city in the nation. Pelosi has had a free ride since she defeated then-supervisor Harry Britt and went to Congress in 1986. Most of the time local Democrats are afraid to even criticize her. But this can't continue. San Francisco needs a voice in Washington that will vigorously oppose the occupation of Iraq and Bush's military policies. If this is how Pelosi wants to operate, someone needs to take her on in 2006. And if progressive Democrats won't challenge her in a primary (and they almost certainly won't), then this ought to become a national target for the Green Party. Matt?