by Jessica Silver-Greenberg

At Saturday afternoon’s anti-war rally inside Fort Greene’s Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, it was abundantly clear that many citizens in Brooklyn are furious with the Bush administration and the Iraq war. When the first speaker, Bob Fertig, approached the pulpit and asked, "How many of you want to talk about impeachment?" the crowd of about 100 people erupted in cheers, raising their fists and waving their flyers.
It wasn’t as clear that Jonathan Tasini, one of the five speakers demanding immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq, also hopes to unseat Hillary Clinton during this year’s Democratic primary. After acting as the president of the National Writers Union from 1990-2003, the mild-mannered Tasini is now quietly mounting a Senate campaign against the well-funded and well-known incumbent. There were a few volunteers standing by the church doors clutching "Tasini for U.S. Senate" placards and handing out bumper stickers, but there was no hand-shaking or baby holding. Instead, a diminutive Tasini, with dark glasses framing large, searching eyes, sat demurely in a front pew waiting his turn to speak.
His strategy, only one month into his Senate campaign, is to position himself as an ally of the activist coalition, led by Progressive Democrats of America, which is fed up with the Democratic Party’s inability to mount a significant counter movement to the current administration. Tasini offered himself as a willing tool for the progressive community, and as a potential source of much needed support for the beleaguered anti-war Democrats already in Congress.
"We need strong leadership in the Senate who will stand up for us," he said. When he rose to speak Tasini never announced his candidacy nor his famous opponent. Instead, he discussed the mounting death toll in Iraq and the failure of President Bush to stem the blood bath. "We do not have an opposition party that speaks for us or will end this war," he began. With such an opening, he was able to seamlessly fold himself into the collective rage of the gathered crowd.
According to a December 2005 poll conducted by Quinnipiac University, 60% of Americans support the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Underscoring his pledge to be the voice of this growing majority which has so far not been heard inside the halls of Congress, Tasini included in his remarks a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.: "Our lives begin to end when we are silent about things that matter."
What mattered most to the crowd of activists, which included representatives from Gold Star Families for Peace, U.S. Labor Against the War, and World Can’t Wait, were calls for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Each speaker listed the rising casualty figures—2,210 U.S. casualties in Iraq, 16,000 soldiers wounded—along with the rapidly mushrooming price tag for the war, currently estimated at over $250 billion. Tasini echoed these concerns throughout his remarks, choosing to criticize the war in terms of opportunity costs. "We could have spent that money to provide universal health care for everyone," he lamented. "That could have meant $400 million in additional scholarships for college or $700 dollars for each American."
His opposition gained traction in the crowd. When he raised his hands and voice to say, "Those Senators who voted for the war don’t deserve our votes," he was met with gales of applause. Behind his statement was the obvious implication of his scheduled primary opponent. Clinton voted for the Iraq war resolution in October 2002.
But, consistent with his understated position, Tasini never explicitly stated that. He was notably subtle and seemed, with his stack of papers and measured tone, more like an academic studying Senate elections than a candidate in one. As the World Can’t Wait’s Deborah Sweet called for Bush and Cheney to be "frog-marched out of the white house in chains," Tasini remained silent.
The political landscape around the war in Iraq remains littered with land mines for Republican and Democratic Senators alike. Critics of Hilary Clinton at the rally argued that she supports the war to curry favor with conservatives whose support she would need for a successful presidential run. "She is pandering to the right wing," Dana Grayson, a teacher said. However, with Representative John Murtha’s call for "phased redeployment" and a 90-9 Senate vote to place restrictions on the interrogation of prisoners, the political spectrum is constantly shifting. It is no longer as easy to discern where the majority lies, or what stated positions will ensure victory. Tasini just hopes to be part of this shifting political climate. "Our job is to make the winds shift," he encouraged.
Tasini supporters in the audience hope that even if he doesn’t win, his candidacy will somehow force Clinton to change her positions. "At least she will have to work the position," Grayson said.
After the rally, audience members who were previously unaware of Tasini commented that at least he was "an opponent to Clinton." His position as an alternative to the incumbent recalled those reluctant John Kerry supporters who nicknamed Kerry ‘not George Bush.’ Even after the conclusion of the rally, some audience members still didn’t realize Tasini was running. In fact, moderator Laura Flanders from Air America had to interrupt him towards the end of his speech and prompt him to reveal where interested audience members could find out more about his candidacy.
The clearest indication of Tasini’s candidacy was an unexpected outburst by another challenger to Clinton, Tom Weiss. Weiss, who can often be seen pacing around Clinton’s speaking events with crudely Xeroxed campaign sheets, stood up during Tasini’s speech and demanded that the moderator give him an audience as well. His outburst suggested what Mike Pahios, part of Vietnam Vets for Peace, grumbled afterwards: "You sort of have to be crazy to run against Clinton."
As an incumbent and wife of former President Bill Clinton, Hilary Clinton certainly has the name recognition which Tasini lacks, and a campaign chest he can only lust after. Despite the obvious obstacles that Tasini himself calls "an uphill battle," the Tasini campaign remains hopeful that New Yorkers want a change, and a Senator that will oppose the war. Opposition to the war is his central campaign promise. On his website, Tasini writes that "the troops must be brought home now." Senator Clinton does not support an immediate withdrawal and has publicly said that there "is a winning strategy for the war." Without ever mentioning Hilary Clinton by name, Tasini made it clear that Clinton’s supposed presidential ambitions prevented her from taking the strong and potentially alienating anti-war position mandated by the crowd. "If you are thinking about running for president you should not vote for war appropriations just to seem tough," he said. Appealing to the audience he called them New Yorkers who "stand up and refuse to be silent." All speakers at the rally stressed the need for impeachment as the only feasible way to end the Iraqi occupation. Tasini’s history of legal advocacy recommends him as a fitting advocate in the impeachment process. As president of the UWA, he was the lead plaintiff in a 1983 class-action suit on behalf of freelancers against the New York Times and other major news publications who license news content to electronic data bases. The suit, which Tasini won, charged major news publications with copy right violation. On his website, the suit is cast as a David-esque victory over the Goliath media outlets.
His proposed campaign against Hilary Clinton has traces of the same story. In preparation for the election, Clinton has launched a "friends of Hilary website" to promote her Senate record and raise money for the re-election campaign. Although the exact financials of her campaign are still unclear, she has already raised over 14 million for her re-election. If her first race is any indication of her financial intentions, then Clinton will devote a hefty sum to ensure her successful re-election. For her 2000 race, she spent over $41 million. Amid speculations about a 2008 bid for the presidential nomination, Clinton continues to stress that she cares foremost about her Senate seat. Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute assessed Clinton’s chances of re-election in an interview earlier this year with AOL News. "It's hard to knock off any incumbent, but particularly an incumbent who has a zillion dollars, 100 percent name recognition and who works at the job," Carroll said.
Tasini understands the challenges implicit in his campaign. After the rally, he admitted that it was certainly "a hard campaign." According to his campaign coordinator, Ted Hamm, rallies like this one are the first step towards defeating Clinton. "I would say about 2/3rds of the crowd here didn’t know about Tasini before the rally," Hamm said. "And now, they all do." He might be right. During the question and answer period, one audience member stood up with a trembling voice and said, "I didn’t know about Tasini, but now I want to find out more about him." With his understated campaign, Tasini is banking on just that type of response.