By Brad Friedman on 1/10/2005, 10:19pm PT  

While I have been too busy since last Thursday getting the Velvet Revolution underway, I have been unable to adequately express my thanks to the members of Congress who didn't fail us last Thursday.

While Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Sen. Barbara Boxer received the lion's share of the notice and thanks last week, the Herculean efforts of Rep. John Conyers and his staff in ferreting out Election Irregularities and Malfeasance in Ohio and elsewhere cannot be understated.

They have been true to their promise --- made to me by a staffer back in November --- to "not let this one go".

To promise such a thing, and then actually do it seems to be a rare thing indeed in Washington these days. From Republicans and Democrats alike! Yet, Conyers and his staff have stayed true to their words. And for that, they have won our greatest respects and enternal thanks.

And this morning, in an open letter posted on John Conyers' website he continues that same promise; To stay on this until the job is done. There are very few politicians on either side of the aisle we can say this about, but we have come to believe that he means what he says.

Hoping to let us all know where he intends to go from here, Conyers' letter starts with a gracious thank you to all of us who helped make so much happen...

I believe what we achieved on January 6 will be a seminal event in the history of progressive politics, and significantly advance the cause of electoral reform. For this challenge to Ohio's electors to have occurred, I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the internet activists, who spread the story of my efforts and supported me in every way possible. I am also thankful to the alternative media, including talk radio and blogs that gave substantial attention and investigation to these matters when all but a handful in the mainstream media refused to examine the facts. I cannot thank all of you personally, but you know who you are.

We do. And behalf of so many of us, you are tremendously welcome.

He then goes on to outline his intentions for today looking forward...

I believe what we achieved on January 6 will be a seminal event in the history of progressive politics, and significantly advance the cause of electoral reform. For this challenge to Ohio's electors to have occurred, I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the internet activists, who spread the story of my efforts and supported me in every way possible. I am also thankful to the alternative media, including talk radio and blogs that gave substantial attention and investigation to these matters when all but a handful in the mainstream media refused to examine the facts. I cannot thank all of you personally, but you know who you are.

With the exigency of January 6 behind us, I wanted to let you know what I will be doing in the coming months. First, my investigation of Ohio voting irregularities is not over. In an effort to get as much information confirmed and circulated in advance of January 6, many valuable leads still need to be pursued and I pledge to do so. Substantial irregularities have come to light in other states during the course of this investigation and I will also pursue those leads. While there has been powerful opposition to my efforts and personal attacks against me as a result of my efforts, I want to assure you I remain steadfast.

Second, there are other matters involving wrongdoing by Administration officials that I will continue to pursue. Among other things, I will continue to seek answers about the role of senior Bush Administration officials in outing an undercover Central Intelligence Agency operative. I will also continue to examine the sources of the fraudulent case for the Iraq war, which intersects with the outing of this operative.

Third, I intend to develop and introduce legislation in a number of areas. Most importantly, I intend to introduce comprehensive election reform legislation in the coming weeks, and I will fight for its passage at the earliest possible moment. I intend to hold further hearings on this issue.

If there was any doubt before, there is certainly none left, that --- in a year marked by the heroic deeds of many great Americans (too numerous to list here) on behalf of our democracy --- John Conyers has truly, hands-down, deserved the high-honor of being our very first "BRAD BLOG Man of the Year".

As regular readers may have noticed by now, there are very few politicians these days that The BRAD BLOG is particularly fond of. So this is no small honor, as many of you would likely attest.

Thank you, Mr. Conyers. And we look forward to more historic and heroics efforts in the near future! (If you haven't sent him thanks yourself, feel free to do so via email here. For the other 31+1, BuzzFlash has put all of their names and addresses together here if you'd like to drop them a note as well.)

We will do whatever we can to support his efforts both here at The BRAD BLOG and over at Velvet Revolution where we exist to support such efforts and such great American heroes!

And onward we go...We'd hate to be nice for too long...gotta reputation to keep! ;-)

Share article...
                 

Article Categories: (Uncategorized)