In protest of Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) acting too “Joe Lieberman” by deciding to vote against the Iran deal, MoveOn.org says it’s mobilizing a donor boycott of the Democratic Party.
“Diplomacy has yielded an agreement between the world’s major powers and Iran that will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The only other means of limiting Iran’s nuclear program is war,” MoveOn.org political action executive director Ilya Sheyman said in a statement. “While not unexpected, it is outrageous and unacceptable that the Democrat who wants to be the party’s leader in the Senate is siding with the Republican partisans and neoconservative ideologues who are trying to scrap this agreement and put us on the path to war.”
“…Our country doesn’t need another Joe Lieberman in the Senate, and it certainly doesn’t need him as Democratic leader. The vast majority of Democratic voters — the people who elected President Obama in part because of our shared belief that war must always be a last resort — will not stand for it…. No real Democratic leader does this. If this is what counts as ‘leadership’ among Democrats in the Senate, Senate Democrats should be prepared to find a new leader or few followers. This is not what the volunteers, activists, small-dollar donors, and voters who actually win elections spend their time and money to support.”
MoveOn.org claims eight million members and says it’s trying to get commitments to withhold $10 million from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee “and from any Democratic candidate who succeeds in undermining the president’s diplomacy with Iran” in the next 72 hours.
Other liberals on Twitter suggested calling Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) office and encouraging her to mount a rebellion against Schumer’s presumed takeover of Senate Democratic leader when Harry Reid (D-Nev.) retires next year.
Schumer’s account was also swamped with comments accusing him of allegiance to Israel over America and calling him an “AIPAC whore.”
Liberal activists began the petition effort to keep Schumer from the majority leader post after he endorsed the Corker-Cardin Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, but there’s no indication that effort gained any traction among Schumer’s peers.
“Schumer’s decision to join Republicans in attempting to sabotage the Iran nuclear deal once again shows that he is unfit to lead senate Democrats,” said political director Becky Bond of CREDO Action, which organized the petition and runs the site StopWarWithIran.com. “Perhaps it is time to change his nickname from Wall Street Chuck to Warmonger Chuck.”
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