Edwardses Join Anti-War Campaign Group

John and Elizabeth Edwards have thrown their support behind a new $20 million election-year campaign to press for a withdrawal from Iraq and tie the war to the faltering economy.

The Edwardses joined a conference call on Monday to discuss their efforts with the group, which includes MoveOn.org, the Service Employees International Union, VoteVets.org, and the Center for American Progress. John Edwards drew extensively from his time on the campaign trail, and spoke kindly of his former opponents who remain in the race. He claimed repeatedly that the American people will have a "very clear choice in the fall" between John McCain and the "Democratic president who will end this war."

Elizabeth Edwards, in traditional fashion, saved many of her choice words for media. Lamenting that reporters "certainly don't cover the connection between the issues," she said the American people see there is "undoubtedly a connection between oil, the costs of transportation in this country, and this war."

The effort, tentatively called Iraq Campaign 2008, intends to focus heavily on the domestic costs of a protracted Iraq war. "We have a limited amount of money and we're spending much too much of our available resources on this war," Elizabeth Edwards said. Grassroots organizing and national advertising will target members of Congress who back the war. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), John Sununu (R-NH), Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) topped the list of likely targets in the Senate. Rep. John Porter (R-NV) was the only name give in the House, though as Brad Woodhouse from Americans United for Change noted, "Most of the chickens have run out of the barn."

Two individuals also on the conference call -- John Podesta, president of the Center for American Progress, and Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer of SEIU -- are heading a Democratic-leaning 527 group expected to be very active in the 2008 presidential race.

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Update: The campaign kicked off today with the release of a new VoteVets.org TV ad critical of Senator John McCain. The ad features Iraq veteran Rose Forrest discussing Senator McCain's proposed 100 year commitment to Iraq and the cost here at home.

Comments

[Unitynow8]

Somebody needs to fix the typo in the title

[ibsteve2u]

They will, ani time now.

[PKSSK]

Yes, it takes credibility away from the author and his message. Please fix the title!

[TheKiddy]

Hooray for John and Elizabeth Edwards. I wrote to them and asked them to keep my contribution toward the general and contribute it to their next important project. Hope my $$ end up helping to bring this war to an end. One of the reasons I supported Edwards was his ability to stand back, and from altitude, see how everything fits together. Good choice JRE and EE!

[ljsfolly]

Hillary voted for the war and now says if she only knew then what she knows now...She would have less arguement if she had read the NIE intel. Maybe she didn't realize they keep track of you checks out the material in Cogress. I would like it for the Edwards family to endorse Barack as he is as anti war as they can be. Hillary has no claim to fame there as she alsi voted for military action againest Iran. Bush got stopped by the very group who wrote the intel she failed to read on Iraq. Funny how things work out. Mac is for war and it matters little where it is. He has been so stuck to bushes ass on all of the war bills and statements he should be easy to beat.

[Researchguy66]

Except that Edwards himself voted to authorize the president to use military force in Iraq. It'd be pretty absurd to impugn hillary for the vote and honor Edwards' backing of an anti-war group as genuine.

[riverhouse]

Well, contrary to Hillary, Edwards admitted the error of his ways re Iraq. Hillary not only refuses to say her vote was a mistake, she continued to support the war quite vigorously until her finger in the wind told her that the Iraq war was not a winner for her. Still, she continues to refuse to take an attack, even a nuke, off the table when discussing Iran.

[gcallaghan]

Republicans = Military Failure

[abbiehoffmansghost]

Please allow me to expand on that thought: Republicans=Failure

[gcallaghan]

Expand away

[finally]

Sen Clinton voted for the war (without reading the 95-page Nat. Intelligence estimate no one on her staff ahd access to) - will she be targeted by this group, too????

[iPolitics]

Unbelievable. Hillary is responsible for voting to give Bush the authority for this war. 4,000 dead; 19,000+ wounded American heroes.

[slow2]

iPolitics, so true.

Add in the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi dead, maimed, and displaced for an additional total that is a horrendous blight on the neocon's and their agenda and the criminal Bush/Cheney implementation of that plan.

It would be some small measure of justice if Dick, George and Bill Kristol were forced to spend some time in Gitmo, and, outside the Green Zone. Like about 10 years in each.

How is it that so many lay people and military and clergy and academics KNEW the WMD story was a lie and yet Hillary didn't?

It is astounding more voters don't recognize the faux "hawkishness" of Hillary for what it is; she needed to beef up her image to run.

That's the vote, that's the reason that so many people will never cast a vote for her.

[tabatha]

hillary voted to give Hans Blix power to inspect....

she did not want bush to launch war, only wanted to give some muscle to the UN inspectors

[SeekerOne]

Mitch McConnell will be an excellent target because of his support for the war, and because he's a lobbyists' wet dream. If we want reform, McConnell needs to go.

[union79]

I thought he decided to retire ~ a fact I celebrated with boundless glee. Hope it's true.