About Face!

In today's Press & Argus, Mike Rogers has now decided that he supports benchmarks for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Though he's still leery of an actual deadline for troop withdrawal,

A series of positive benchmarks -- with definite time frames for their achievement -- could prod the Iraqi government to improve its performance and the security situation in the country, he said.

Hmmm... Congressional candidate Jim Marcinkowski thought a benchmarked withdrawal was a sound policy approach as far back as April, but Mike Rogers felt that sort of talk was defeatist. How many more U.S. servicemembers need to be killed or wounded before Mike can admit that he was wrong?

NYT columnist Bob Herbert pointed out that Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) voted for the war, and was honest enough to admit that his support had been a mistake:

“I, for one, am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal. I cannot support that anymore.”

If the U.S. is ultimately going to retreat in Iraq, he said, “I would rather do it sooner than later. I am looking for answers, but the current course is unacceptable to this senator.”

Here at home, as U.S. troops and Iraqi citizens continue to die, Rogers is still looking for a "unified position" that everyone can "get behind."

"I think we've got to find a unified position... we will do more to solve the problem if we do it with one voice."

Let's review: 63% of Americans think the war is a mistake. That's a higher percentage than Bush received in 2000, or 2004. In fact, that's a higher percentage than Mike Rogers received last month. Sounds pretty unified to me...

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

Cross-posted on MichiganLiberal and DailyKos.

This morning Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood was featured in the Livingston Daily Press & Argus, on the front page and above the fold, no less! Many thanks to Dan Meisler for featuring our humble young blog so prominently today, and on behalf of all our contributors, I would like to welcome all the new readers.

In Meisler's article, Livingston County Republican Party Chairman Allan Filip had this to say about political blogs:

"To really play a large role, a lot of these things are going to have to become less venomous," he said.

Generally speaking, Filip said, political blogs play to the extreme fringes of their particular parties.

"I don't think necessarily it's anything that's changing people's hearts and minds," he said.

Mr. Filip is certainly entitled to his opinion, but the people of the neighborhood are by no means looking to be "venomous" towards Mike Rogers – our goal is to simply inform constituents living in the 8th Congressional district about his record. If Chairman Filip feels we won't be "changing people's hearts and minds," then he has nothing to worry about.

We're simply here to eductate the people of "the neighborhood," and look forward to tracking Mike Rogers' service in Washington during the 110th Congress.