This weekend, we heard from congressional sources that Republicans are closer than ever to the number of Senate votes they need to use the "nuclear option"—paving the way for the appointment of truly extreme right-wing judges. With enough of an outcry, we can stop them. But we need to move fast to get the word out and demonstrate to our senators broad-based opposition to this dangerous measure. So our call-in day comes at just the right time.

This message contains essential info for Wednesday's massive national call-in day (which we described during last week's parties). It also addresses some of the most frequent questions you mentioned in the post-party survey, including how to get involved in Operation Democracy, our big new campaign to fight the right and elect progressives, if you didn't make it to a party. If you're waiting for details on the call-in days—or feeling confused more generally—please read on!

1. The call-in day is on Wednesday. We moved it to Wednesday because Senator Byrd of West Virginia, one of the Senate's most distinguished statesmen, has agreed to headline a MoveOn member rally in Washington, D.C. to coincide with the call-in day (if you live in the D.C. area you'll get a separate message about this event).

2. Materials and instructions are ready. You will find everything you need, including complete call-in day instructions, a flyer for your area with the appropriate senators' names and numbers, a sample script, how-to's and issue info at:

http://www.moveonpac.org/team/0316/

3. If you're a team leader, register your team now. It's easy. You'll be asked for a team name, the area your team will cover, and a description. Don't worry too much about these -- you can change them later. Then you can enter your team members' names and info, or send them a link to sign up themselves. Just click here to start:

http://www.moveonpac.org/team/create/

4. If you want to participate in Operation Democracy, our new progressive campaign, please join a team or start your own. You can find a team near you by entering your zip at the link below. You can also start your own team, which can be public (other members can find it and ask to join) or private (only people you invite can join). And it can start as small as one or two people. Click here to find or start a team:

http://www.moveonpac.org/team/

5. You have questions—we have answers. At the end of this message, we have included answers to some of the most common questions you've asked. But there are lots more answers at our frequently asked questions page for Operation Democracy.

http://www.moveonpac.org/team/faq.html

For questions specific to the call-in day, click here:

http://www.moveonpac.org/team/0316faq.html

Both pages explain how to contact us if your question isn't answered there.

We know that we threw a lot of info at you during a short time on Thursday, and many of you still have lots of questions about how Operation Democracy will work, what we'll do next, what issues we'll address, what's expected of you, etc. For those of you who had trouble connecting to the conference call, it was particularly challenging to understand everything.

At the same time, we're thrilled & heartened that despite these questions, so many of you joined with other members to form teams or decided to start your own from scratch. Given the urgency of the judges issue, Social Security, and other fights, we're scrambling to get Operation Democracy up and running as fast as we possibly can. For now, we invite you to focus on making this week's efforts a success—meanwhile, we'll do our best to answer all your questions and address your concerns.

When we asked you to join us in launching this campaign, we knew we were trying to do something extraordinarily ambitious—build a network of committed, trained progressive activists in every town in America who can turn things around. That vision is still a long way off, and it's going to take a lot of work, patience, and faith from all of us. But we're off to an incredible start.

In the words of Mary Ellen, from Sandy, UT:

"Every one of us has felt isolated in our progressive mindset, and now we have tangible evidence in each other that we are part of a community. We are on a path, we are moving on."

Thank you for your inspiring example.

Sincerely,

--Adam, Justin, Matt and the whole MoveOn PAC team
Monday, March 14th, 2006

P.S. Here are answers to some of your most frequent questions:

What are we going to do next?

We'll email you in the next few weeks with more plans to stop right-wing judicial appointments, including a concerted national letter-to-the-editor campaign. We're also planning on addressing Social Security privatization very soon.

How will we decide what issues we work on?

That will depend, in part, on how events unfold. But we know, based on the priorities you set at the Future of MoveOn parties in November and your feedback through other avenues, that we'll work on Social Security, election reform, and the war, among other issues. We'll also use surveys and other feedback mechanisms to solicit your ideas and input.

I have the names/addresses of people who signed up to be team leaders and I don't know how to enter them in.

Don't worry about it. Just email them and tell them they can go ahead and register their team by going to:

http://www.moveonpac.org/team/create/

Can we have a team that crosses municipal lines or spans more than one area?

It's up to you to decide what area your team covers—we've deliberately left it flexible. We want our network to gain strength by building connections and community within neighborhoods. But it's fine to start out covering a larger area, and then as you grow stronger, to split into two teams covering smaller areas.

Our party didn't want to break up into smaller teams. Can we have teams bigger than 6 people?

We haven't set a maximum group size—it's ultimately up to you how you want to organize yourselves. That said, we find that when groups get much bigger than about eight people, participation often starts to decline and a few people end up doing the lion's share of the work. Ultimately, we think our network will be stronger if each town has several teams that can cover particular neighborhoods and coordinate together vs. one larger team that becomes unwieldy and ceases to grow. But we definitely understand that people don't want to feel atomized or "split off." Coordination and communication between teams is a key part of our plan.

We live in a very progressive state. Shouldn't we be calling Senators somewhere else?

It is our strategic judgment that every Senator needs to hear from constituents on this issue right now—even those who are reliably progressive or who have spoken out against the nuclear option. Stopping the nuclear option may require these senators to take considerable political risks in order to lead the Democrats into an extremely high-stakes confrontation with Bush and the Republican leadership in Congress: Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid has threatened to "shut down the Senate" if the Republicans take away the Democrats' voice.

Whatever their personal beliefs, progressive senators NEED to hear that this is a priority for their constituents and that you will be there to support them. And we need an avalanche of calls into every office in the Senate to create a buzz about growing opposition. To transform this from a Washington insider's game to a fight in the public spotlight, Senators need to know people are paying attention.

That said, if you have particular other states you want to call, you can download flyers for those states, with the senators' names and contact info from our site at:

http://www.moveonpac.org/team/0316/flyer.html

Should we make plans to get together again?

As a team, you'll want to meet somewhat regularly. We'll tell you about next month's main action in by the end of the month, so you might want to make a plan to meet during the first week of April, if not before. If multiple teams formed at your house party and you all want to keep meeting together that's fine. We won't organize an official wave of houseparties, so make sure you have the email addresses of the other team leaders from your party, and you can coordinate together. While you can meet as often as team members like, we pledge that we won't ask you to meet without a good reason or without an opportunity to take action.

If there's not team near my neighborhood, can I join another further away?

Sure. But if you do that, we encourage you to begin recruiting others in your area and ultimately to form your own team.

Can we get in contact with other local teams?

We will create a way for team leaders in your area to communicate and coordinate, either electronically or in-person. This may take a few months to get up and rolling, however.



PAID FOR BY MOVEON PAC
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Time: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 - 11:00pm PST