Rep. Matsui House speech today sounds good, but fails the troops

UPDATE: URGENT NEWS ADVISORY
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Contact: Cres Vellucci, Sacramento Coalition to End the War, 916/996-9170

ATTN: Assignment Desk

Rep. Matsui House speech today sounds good,
but fails the troops and won't bring war to
a close, charges area anti-war coalition

SACRAMENTO – Rep. Doris Matsui – in a speech today on the floor of the
House – may have spoken "eloquently," but she fails "utterly" to make good
on her words, charged a broad-based coalition of anti-war groups here late
Tuesday.

"Rep. Matsui says she supports ‘several responsible proposals' to bring the
war to a close, but in fact she doesn't support any proposal that brings
this war to a close and brings the troops home," said Maggie Coulter of the
Sacramento Coalition to End the War.

The Coalition held a rally Tuesday in front of Matsui's office – where they
marked 26 straight days of a "peace-in" in her office – sporting dozens of
purses in an effort to show Matsui that Congress has the ability to stop
the war by cutting future war funding.

"Doris Matsui speaks passionately and eloquently. But she has utterly
failed to make good on her words while more Americans and more civilian
Iraqi die. Every day Doris Matsui speaks, but does nothing, people die and
US troops remain in harm's way," said Coulter.

She noted that Rep. Matsui has signed on only to non-binding resolutions,
which are symbolic, and measures – such as HR 787 – which authorizes a
troop withdrawal, but also allow the President to stop the redeployment at
any point, and would leave an unspecified number of troops in Iraq in the end.

"Congress has the power of the purse strings. It is the one real way it can
stop the war. Yet Doris refuses to agree to our lone request – vote against
future funding for the war. There are billions already allocated to protect
our troops. New funding only extends the war," Coulter added.

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