Faith and Freedom Network

Congressman Brian Baird, D-WA (3RD District) is experiencing the wrath of the left for after a personal, eyewitness assessment of the war in Iraq, reversing his position on the war.

Left-wing activists took over his first public appearance, after his decision, when he hosted a town hall meeting at Vancouver High School. Subsequent meetings have been met with the same level of protest, disdain and personal attack.

I've been watching this story since it began, thinking these folks would express themselves, start a campaign to vote him out, then simply "move on."

Not so. They are definitely out to get him, but it appears that they also want to teach a lesson or two in the process. And the lesson is sobering.

The Oregonian posted a story on August 27, describing the town hall meeting by saying, "For more than three hours Monday night, Rep. Brian Baird was verbally flogged by hundreds of his constituents for no longer supporting the quick withdrawal of the troops from Iraq."

I would have expected the liberal left to have been upset that he didn't follow the party line and to have started the process of voting him out, but I was not prepared for the attack that has followed.

I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was, by the hatred and venom that was directed at the Congressman, who even by the account of the leftist Oregonian, took the attack with grace.

I believe the defining moment was found in a statement made by Jan Lustig. She said, "We don't care what your convictions are, you are here to represent us."

We don't care what your convictions are?

They are obviously forgetting an inconvenient truth. We live in a Republic, where constituents vote in politicians to do what they feel is right, moral and honest, then if they don't like them they vote them out.

He gave his honest assessment of what he saw in Iraq and based on that he came to some honest convictions. He told the Oregonian," The easiest thing in the world would have been for me to go over there... and just say, using partisan rhetoric, get out now."

But he didn't. He stood up, gracefully, for what he believed was right and there in was his mistake in the eyes of the left.

My experience has been that the left, the liberals, the secularists, etc, are pretty consistent. When someone says something they don' t agree with or don't want to believe, they first throw up all kinds of often unrelated information, objections and then hypothetical questions and denials. The next step is to attack the messenger. And attack them in the most coarse and sometimes slanderous ways. Congressman Baird is experiencing this from his own people. Most Christian leaders who speak out on the issues, experience the same venom. If you don't believe me, look at some of the posts on this website.

I am ask from time to time, why we continue to give these folks such access, when no other Christian organization does so. We have just felt that it was the right thing to do. Maybe something good could come from it. God knows.

Now Moveon.org has gone after Baird with a well financed ad campaign calling his decision "immoral" because he told the truth as he saw it.

The ad characteristically does not make specific reference to how Baird came to reverse his position, but has a soldier describing a scene in Iraq in 2003-2004, long before the troop increase that Baird cites as the reason for his change of mind.

Moveon.org and their allies are calling out a man and attacking his character because he went and saw and made an honest assessment that he felt was true and best for his country and the men and women who serve us in our military. He, his thought process, and decision is now "immoral."

The liberal left once again proves they aren't so interested in the truth as they are their agenda.

Baird has predictably responded to Moveon.org with grace and civility, something lost in their rush toward the goal.

Show me the last time Christians or conservatives shouted down one of their own and proceeded to assassinate their character publicly because they disagreed with their position. Vote them in or vote them out. You bet. Try to destroy them, -----No.

I don't agree with some of the positions Congressman Baird has taken in the past, but I think we all respect his courage to go with what he believes to be right.

________________
Gary Randall
President
Faith & Freedom

Click here to add these blogs to your email inbox.