Senate OKs Resolution Opposing War in Iraq

TOM BELL

The Maine Senate endorsed a resolution Tuesday that asks President Bush to pursue a diplomatic solution with Iraq rather than going to war. The House is expected to take up the proposal on Thursday at the earliest. The 18-15 Senate vote represents the first time nationally that a state legislative body has taken a stance against a war in Iraq. Sixty-three U.S. cities, including Portland, have voted to support similar resolutions. The Senate vote was partisan, with every Democrat supporting the measure and every Republican in attendance opposing it.

The Senate debate lasted a half-hour and centered on whether the Legislature had any business voting on matters of foreign policy.

Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Portland, who introduced the measure, compared the huge cost of the war, which he projected at $200 billion, to Maine's pressing economic issues. He said the federal government should be spending money to keep factories open in Maine rather than destroying them in Iraq.

"The economic situation in Maine needs our attention and needs it now," he said. "This war will distract us from that."

Sen. Kenneth Blais, R-Litchfield, said the resolution would be used by enemies of the United States to attack its foreign policy. He said Bush will make his decision based on the nation's intelligence-gathering resources and that the Legislature should not interfere with a president's duty as commander in chief.

"I'm saddened," Blais said, "by the attempts to link national security with financial aid to our state."

If approved by the House, copies of the resolution would be sent to Maine's congressional delegation and the White House.

The resolution is more vaguely worded than the one approved Monday by the Portland City Council on an 8-1 vote. The Portland measure opposes a pre-emptive invasion of Iraq by the United States without a clear showing of need, while the Legislature's resolution urges Bush to "support the full pursuit of diplomatic solutions and weapons inspections."

Hundreds of people have been calling Maine Senate offices during the past two days and nearly all of the calls have been in support of the resolution, according to Nina Wickenheiser, senior office administrator for the Senate Majority Office, which received 50 to 75 calls Monday. The Secretary of the Senate's Office received more than 300 calls. The Senate Minority Office received at least 50 calls, many of which were targeted at Republican senators in the midcoast region.

The peace movement in Maine is most active in the midcoast region, Portland, Bangor and Hancock County, said Greg Field, executive director of Peace Action Maine. He said his group, working with a loose coalition called Maine Win Without War, sent out e-mails urging members to call the Legislature. The coalition is composed of 22 groups, including the Maine Council of Churches, Physicians for Social Responsibility and the National Organization for Women.

News of the Senate's vote has inspired activists in Vermont to push for a resolution in their state legislature, said Karen Dolan, director of the Institute for Policy Studies. The Washington think tank runs a Web site, citiesforpeace.org, to provide civic and legislative entities support for anti-war measures.

Dolan said people are taking the issue of war to their local governments because they don't believe they have any other way to express themselves. "People are frustrated that their voices are not being heard at the federal level," she said.

When it comes to war, Maine politicians have never been shy about making their opinions known. The War of 1812 was hugely unpopular along the coast and in commercial centers because it cut off trade with Canada, and many in the province of Maine talked about secession, said Rep. Herb Adams, D-Portland, also a historian.

Maine's Thomas Brackett Reed, the powerful speaker of the U.S. House, was so bitterly opposed to the "imperialistic" Spanish-American War that he resigned in protest, Adams said.

There were a lot of Maine pacifists during World War I, Adams said, and Republican Maine was deeply isolationist during the period between the two world wars. Ken Curtis, who was governor during the Vietnam War era, was a harsh critic of that war, Adams said.

In 1991, the state Senate and House approved a Gulf War resolution supporting U.S. troops and the former President Bush. Debate over the wording of the non-binding resolution, particularly whether it should mention Bush, stalled it for weeks. Adams, a legislator at the time, worked for several days to craft language that would appease both Republicans and Democrats.

"After all that sound and fury, I cannot today remember which version finally passed," Adams said.