Sunday afternoon, after all the training sessions, we had a short lobby prep session, for those of us staying the next day to visit the offices of our Congressional reps. Out of a total of 120+ Conference attendees, I estimate 20 stayed.
We were each given a packet detailing pending legislation. As previously noted, there was

Cluster bombs (H.R. 1755, H.J. Res. 91, S.594 and S.J. Res. 37)
Encouraging NGOs on both sides that are working for peace (H.R. 1369)

Pro-War resolution calling for blockade of Iran(an act of war) (H Con Res 362)

There were other topics we were encouraged to bring up, such as US aid to Israel, and a Palestinian mayor's visa. Because of my military background(I was a Combat Engineer in the Army & worked with ground-deployed cluster bombs), I made the offer to write up a letter expressing my personal opinion that they were a useless and unnecessary weapon that causes extreme suffering to civilians for decades. The other folks there were interested in such a letter & so I worked until 11pm getting it ready for them. Here is the text of the letter.

I delivered the 3 items(Jimmy Carter's book Palestine, Peace, not Apartheid, Palestine for Beginners DVD and the letter) to staffers at three of the offices. I wrote a personalized note to each of the higher foreign-policy staffers that the receptionists promised to give the stuff to, but I do not know... At the fourth office(Rep McDermott), I met with his head staffer, Jan Shinpoch. Our appointment was originally for 20 minutes, but we sat in McDermott's office & talked for over an hour.

Jan obviously knows how to prepare for guests from "the home state": She pointed out a picture of Mohammed Mosaddeq(The Iranian president deposed in 1953 by the CIA) and stated that McDermott felt that was when our foreign policy first went astray. I noted the embroidered wall hanging of Naji al-Al(the famous Pal cartoonist)'s signature character and asked Jan if she had put that up for me. She just laughed and changed the subject.

Jan had a lot of very enlightening words for me. First, she said that McDermott was a strong co-sponsor of H.R. 1755(the weaker of the two) and planned to work hard for H.J. Res. 91(which would , in effect, ban the damn things outright). She pointed out that he had tried to get similar legislation passed for years, and brought up Israel's misuse of the weapons before I had a chance to even mention the country. Whether it was an act or not, she was obviously familiar with the issues.

After talking about cluster bombs for a while, I asked her what we, the activist community, could do to help Rep McDermott in his work. She thought about it and came up with some suggestions. She mentioned H Res 362, saying that it was the closest step towards war yet, and that McDermott could use all of our help to work to defeat it. She said it was being presented as a purely advisory, suggestion, that would have no dangerous consequence, but that that is false, that the bill would give Congress's stamp of approval to Bush's blockading Iran, an act of war. She suggested that we "get the entire Washington delegation off the bill", in other words, talk to every Wash Rep & Senator to ensure that they will not be voting for this thing.

She said that we all need to work to ensure Obama wins in November. She said the entire world was "on hold" until then, and would "breath a sign of relief". She said MCD said that McCain would "make Cheney look like Ghandi"! Which I thought was cute, but a little exaggerated.

I asked her what sort of advice she would have for Pro-Pal activists to get our issue the attention it deserves. She pondered for a while, then told me to work on publishing sympathetic articles. She said, from her perspective, to change policy you have to reach the reps, or at least their staffers. She said that they get all their news from internet sources, so you have to get published in reputable sources.

She said a great opportunity is coming up in a few months, right after the election. She said that, as soon as Obama wins, he will set up a Transition Team(TT) in some unmarked office complex outside of DC. She said there is a short, but crucial window of opportunity, if you can compile articles, preferably scholarly, in reputable sources and preferably by big names. Then you mail these articles to a friend in DC, who hand-carries them to the TT. You do NOT mail them, as mail to gov't officials takes 3 months to arrive. She said that key would be getting the name of someone on that team. Interesting idea.

According to Jan, it is often easier to get a good editorial in the NYT than the Wash Post, because the Post has so many writers on contract that they have little room for unknowns. A great idea she suggested was for us to look up retired public officials, professors, pundits, etc and get them to write on the subject. She said there would be a much greater chance of national exposure.

She gave me some serious advice about the direction she would like to see the Israel-Pal conflict go in. She said that she would like to see the Arab states and Palestine unilaterally recognize Israel, that that would be a huge step forward & blow to the extremists. I cautiously mentioned that I seem to recall that that was the offer inherent in the Saudi Initiative, but I think she might have been unfamiliar with that. Anyway, it was an interesting sentiment.

Wandering around the House & Senate office buildings was really fun. I wish my wife would let me become a lobbyist. Many reps had their personal issues out in the hall on easels. Here is Rep Jay Inslee's:

and here is McDermott's




That's my thumb over on the left

View from Capitol building