Dear Congressman Chocola:

I know you were able to spend some moments with President Bush yesterday during his visit Notre Dame. I hope you expressed to him our grave concerns (no pun intended) about his discredited doctrine of preemption. We are, after all, your constituents and you are our representative. If you've been reading your mail, you know how I and thousands of others throughout the district feel about this matter.

So, what did he say?

OK, forgive the cheek. It is obvious that you are in agreement with the president on, well, everything. We hope and pray that you will realize the error of your allegiance, especially in regard to the unprovoked war in Iraq and any future, God forbid, misadventures of this type.

Before I present to you the list of this past week's U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq (the total has passed another grim milestone, 1,500), I call your attention to another curious aspect of the president?s management performance. As you know -- I heard you acknowledge it in your town-hall meeting last Saturday -- the president's request to establish private accounts for younger workers so they can divert some of their Social Security withholding into investments, does nothing to address the long-term solvency issue. In other words, it's not a fix.

As you also know, the invasion and occupation of Iraq, did nothing to bring to justice those responsible for the 9/11 attacks or retard recruitment efforts of terrorist organizations. Most analysts say the invasion has helped recruitment. We now know that Iraq had no connection to Osama bin Laden or al-Qaeda, at least not before the U.S. invaded and began occupying the country. And as the U.N. weapons inspectors reported -- but the president steadfastly denied (I believed he called them gullible fools) -- Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction.

So, we have a president who ably identifies a problem and then doggedly sets out in a direction other than its source. I have to hand it to his publicists. Against all odds, they are able to portray profoundly poor problem-solving skills as principled determination and moral clarity.

But may I remind you, congressman, that you do not work for the president, you work for us. So, before we address long-term problems with the Social Security program -- a worthy enough pursuit -- let's take care of some unfinished business. I don't know what the best strategy is to bring stability to Iraq, to clean up the mess of our mistaken military action. I've yet to hear your solution. But it does not require Solomonic wisdom to sponsor a resolution condemning the Bush administration for the Iraq debacle and declaring to the world that the United States will never again wage first-strike war. That, as they say, is a no-brainer.

When Congress reconvenes, I would appreciate it if you submitted such a resolution for a vote.

With great concern,
writing on behalf of the Michiana Peace & Justice Coalition, I am,

Ed Cohen

March 5, 2005

Senator Evan Bayh
Leighton Plaza, Suite 110
130 S. Main St.
South Bend, IN 46601

Dear Senator Bayh:

As you know, we here in South Bend have been the focus of much media attention the past 24 hours because of President Bush's visit to Notre Dame for another of his town-hall meetings on Social Security. It's amazing how in a country as deeply divided as our is over his policies, every town hall he speaks in is full of people wildly (one might say insanely) supportive of his policies.

I haven't seen your name mentioned in any of the coverage of the event, so I'm assuming you didn't attend. I'm sure tickets were not made available to known Democrats. Had your schedule allowed, you would have been a welcome addition to the hundreds of protestors who greeted the throngs heading into the Joyce Center. I didn't see a single elected Democrat among the protestors, and I find that puzzling and disappointing. (As is customary with this president, he didn't see any of the protestors; he was ushered in through a back door.)

Before I present to you the list of this past week's U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq (the total has passed another grim milestone, 1,500), I call your attention to another curious aspect of the president?s management performance. As you know -- and as even our local Republican congressman admitted in his own town-hall meeting last Saturday -- the president's request to establish private accounts for younger workers so they can divert some of their Social Security withholding into investments, does nothing to address the long-term solvency issue. In other words, it's not a fix.

As you also know, the invasion and occupation of Iraq, did nothing to bring to justice those responsible for the 9/11 attacks or retard recruitment efforts of terrorist organizations. Most analysts say the invasion has helped recruitment. We now know that Iraq had no connection to Osama bin Laden or al-Qaeda, at least not before the U.S. invaded and began occupying the country. And as the U.N. weapons inspectors reported -- but the president steadfastly denied (I believed he called them gullible fools) -- Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction.

So, we have a president who ably identifies a problem and then doggedly sets out in a direction other than its source. I have to hand it to his publicists. Against all odds, they are able to portray profoundly poor problem-solving skills as principled determination and moral clarity.

Before the legislature takes up long-term problems with the Social Security program -- a worthy enough pursuit -- may I ask you to take care of some unfinished business? I don't know what the best strategy is to bring stability to Iraq, to clean up the mess of our mistaken military action. I've yet to hear your solution. But it does not require Solomonic wisdom to sponsor a resolution condemning the Bush administration for the Iraq debacle and declaring to the world that the United States will never again wage first-strike war. That, as they say, is a no-brainer.

When the Senate reconvenes, I would appreciate it if you submitted such a resolution for a vote.

With great concern,
writing on behalf of the Michiana Peace & Justice Coalition, I am,

Ed Cohen