Streisand to Dems: 'Go on the offensive'
'Barbra urges the Democrats ...'
From John Mercurio (CNN Political Editor)
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Barbra Streisand has instructed an aide to fire off a letter urging House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt to "go on the offensive" against President Bush in the debate over Iraq.
Margery Tabankin, the singer-actress-activist's top political adviser, penned the memo, which was faxed to the Capitol on Wednesday, several hours after Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, delivered a fiery floor speech about the debate over Iraq and national security. (Full story)
"While the Republicans are shouting about the Democrats' special interests," Tabankin wrote, "why are the Democrats not saying the same about the Republicans? How can we ignore the obvious influence on the Bush administration of such special interests as the oil industry, the chemical companies, the logging industry, the defense contractors, the mining industry, and the automobile industry, just to name a few?
"Many of these industries, run by big Republican donors and insiders, clearly have much to gain if we go to war against Iraq. Barbra urges the Democrats to publicly convey this message to the American people," she wrote.
Tabankin added that while there are "serious problems" with Iraq and Saddam Hussein, "Barbra feels that we can't let this issue become a distraction from the country's domestic problems and the president's inability to fully dismantle the Al Queda (sic) network. After all, Sadam (sic) Hussein did not bomb the World Trade Center."
Streisand held two major Democratic fund-raisers in mid-August 2000. She raised an estimated $10 million for the Clinton presidential library during a Sunday brunch at her Malibu estate and headlined a $5.3 million "nomination celebration" at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles during the party's national convention. The estimated cost at that event was $50,000 per person.
She's preparing this week to perform at a major House Democratic fund-raiser Sunday in Los Angeles.
While the Republicans are shouting about the Democrats' special interests, why are the Democrats not saying the same about the Republicans?
