Maryland General Assembly members know full well they have no official say in what happens in Iraq. But a majority of Democrats in the state House and Senate said their constituents have pressured them to take a stand against the proposed “surge” in troops.
As the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday began debating the troop increase, Annapolis lawmakers sent a strongly worded letter to the Maryland congressional delegation “to speak up forcefully and oppose this escalation.”
“There were concerns by many of our constituents that we had to have our voice heard,” said Sen. Paul Pinsky, D-Prince George?s County, who led the effort in the Senate, where 25 Democrats signed on.
Pinsky said he stopped asking Republicans when two or three “moderates” turned him down.
“They know better” than to ask her, said Sen. Nancy Jacobs, R-Harford.
Maryland legislators had no business meddling in foreign affairs where they had no access to military intelligence, said Sen. David Brinkley, R-Carroll and Frederick.
“We ought to leave it up to the federal government where it ought to be,” the Senate Republican leader said.
Del. Liz Bobo, D-Howard, who led the effort to collect more than 58 signatures in the House, said state lawmakers needed to “put our names on the line.”
Sen. James Brochin, D-Baltimore County, said a parent asked him, “What are you going to do to stop the war in Iraq?” while he read to a class Friday at Pot Spring Elementary School in Lutherville.
“You feel helpless,” Brochin said, but when he told her about signing the letter, she said, “Thank you.”
“I think the president is misguided,” Brochin said.
Two Baltimore City senators complained about the financial drain the war has placed on other important programs. “The cost of the war is escalating every day,” Sen. Catherine Pugh said.
“I think we?ve exhausted all that we can do in the Middle East,” said Sen. Nathaniel McFadden, president pro-tem of the Senate.
