Author: Dan Seals

As we wind up this fundraising quarter, I am sure you are all getting inundated with emails from different candidates asking for your support.

Like most of you, I know that our country is ready for change. After seven years of failed leadership from George Bush, it’s time we send new leaders to Washington. But as we’ve seen recently, it’s not just enough to elect Democrats; we must elect better Democrats.

Together we can create a Congress that will bring an end to the war in Iraq, ensure that every American has healthcare, and never capitulate when it comes to protecting our Constitutional liberties. But to create this Congress, I need your help and there is no better time to help than right now.

My opponent, Mark Kirk, is not only one of the top Republican fundraisers in the nation, but he has also been one of the biggest defenders of this administration. He didn’t just vote to get us into the war in Iraq, he actually was handpicked by the President to craft the language to get us into it. Just a few days ago, he was caught spreading the false claim that China is drilling off the Florida coast, a fabrication that even Vice-President Dick Cheney has disavowed.

The Republicans are going to do everything they can to hold onto this seat, so we need to do everything we can to have the financial resources we need to win come November.

In just over 200 days, we are going to swear in a new government. Let’s do everything we can right now to make sure it’s a government that will deliver the change we all deserve. 

Join our movement for change by signing up for a virtual phone bank, committing to walking in a Fourth of July parade, or adding .10 to any contribution you can make today to help us bring the change we need to Washington.  

Please visit my website at www.dansealsforcongress to learn more about my campaign.

Thank you for all of your hard work and your commitment to demanding more from our government.

Cross-posted at Daily Kos and Open Left.

 

Over the past few weeks, our nation has been swept with the shocking revelation from former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan that the Bush White House engaged in conscious deception to lead our country to war with Iraq. After the thousands of American lives lost, hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars appropriated, and five plus years spent in Iraq, this latest disclosure underscores the need for change in Washington.

When I first launched my campaign for Congress in December 2005, I made ending the war in Iraq a central part of my campaign platform. Even as political pundits warned that opposition to the war in Iraq would show “weakness” on the part of Democrats, I was outspoken in my opposition to the war. In my opinion, some things are too important for political games. And a war—this misguided war—is one of them.
 

As I met with voters across the 10^th district in 2006, I learned that the pundits were all wrong. People here didn’t think of the war in electoral terms, instead they thought of the human loss every time they opened the paper to see that another young Illinois soldier had died heroically in the line of duty. As the details of the march to war increasingly came to light, they began to oppose it for moral reasons.
 

Scott McClellan’s revelations may not be entirely new, but they are entirely shocking. Here is an insider in the Bush administration who acknowledges that not only our government’s intelligence was faulty, but—even worse—our government actively peddled propaganda to promulgate their flawed war agenda.
 

Last week, the Senate Intelligence Committee released two bipartisan reports on pre-war intelligence that confirmed McClellan’s allegations. The reports found that the Bush administration “misrepresented the intelligence and the threat from Iraq,” leading Intelligence Committee Chair Senator Jay Rockefeller to declare that the Administration had “led the nation into war under false pretenses.”
 

According to Congressional Quarterly, my opponent, Mark Kirk, was one of nine Congressional Republicans hand-picked to craft the language to go to war. He wasn’t just one out of 435 votes, not just one of the dozens of talking heads on cable news stations, but one of nine Congressman who helped lead us into this unnecessary war.
 

Since then, he has been one of President Bush’s most reliable allies in Congress. In the last year alone, he has voted 9 times against establishing a responsible timetable withdrawal, despite growing signs that our troops are in the crosshairs of an Iraq civil war. Even worse, The Politico recently identified him as a ringleader in the effort on the part of Republicans to vote “present” on war spending.
 

Despite his complicity in propagating this war, he went to the White House in May 2007 to complain to President Bush that the war was hurting his re-election chances and continues to refuse to even list the war in the issues section of his website.
 

Leadership is about standing up for what is right, asking the tough questions, and demanding accountability. Mark Kirk has failed the 10^th district and our nation on all three counts when it comes to the war in Iraq.

 

I’m running for Congress because I believe it’s time for a change in Washington. It’s time we restore honor, honesty, and accountability to Congress. I can’t think of any better place to start than by ending this war in Iraq.

 

Cross-posted at Daily Kos and Open Left.

My name is Dan Seals and as many of you may know, I am running for Congress in Illinois’ 10th district. I wanted to take this opportunity to first thank all of you for the outpouring of support I received through Blue Majority but also to introduce myself as a candidate for Congress.

Like many of you, my decision to get politically involved was borne out of frustration. It was a decision borne out of frustration with President Bush’s re-election in 2004, frustration with our open-ended engagement in Iraq, and frustration with the record budget deficits that have saddled my three little girls with unimaginable debt.  

But it was also a decision borne out of optimism for a better future. That is why I am here today: I believe and know that we can do better. My grandparents and parents raised me with the knowledge that I was growing up in a better America than the America of their youth. Like them, I want to leave our country better off for my children, and that is why I am running for Congress.

Right now, due to wasteful federal spending on the part of the Republican Party and my opponent, Mark Kirk, each of my three daughters is over $30,000 in debt. That is over $30,000 in debt before any of them have reached the age of 10, much less gone to college or owned a home. I can’t imagine anything more un-American than saddling our children with this kind of debt.

This debt didn’t appear overnight. In fact, it is the result of seven-plus years of conscious, wasteful spending on the part of the President and the national Republican Party- from tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to hundreds of billions of dollars shipped overseas to Iraq.

My opponent, Mark Kirk, has been a part of this problem in Washington. From supporting tax cuts for billionaires and corporations who move offshore, to rubberstamping the Bush administration’s failed policies in Iraq, to giving away billions of dollars in tax breaks and incentives to big oil, he has shown where his priorities lie.

Over the next several months, I look forward to talking not only with voters in the 10th district, but also with you. I look forward to putting an end to the myth that Republicans own the mantle of fiscal responsibility. But most importantly, I look forward to being a part of a Congress that understands that we have no greater duty than leaving our nation better off for our children and grandchildren.

To learn more about my campaign, please visit my website at www.dansealsforcongress.com.

Cross-posted at Open Left and Daily Kos.