My friend replied, "they're frustrated because nobody will listen to them. We're all angry because we don't know what else to do."

I shall always be grateful to Jim Moran for that town meeting at Minnie Howard. There wasn't any place else you could go where anybody would listen to you, where you didn't feel alone, like one small voice of reason drowned out by the incessant drumbeats of war.

Arlington, Va.: Mark, Rep. Moran is hosting an event tonight at the George Washington Masonic memorial building in Alexandria, Va., on the run-up to a possible war with Iran. Will you or someone from The Post be there, to see if he says who is responsible for this, especially after he's said on more than one occasion now that the Jewish community led the charge for war with Iraq? Not that I'm advocating "gotcha" journalism, but I am curious to see who Moran pins the blame on for the increasingly bellicose stance the U.S. has with Iran.

Mark Plotkin: I don't work for The Post and the assignment editor does not clear his/her assignments with me but I would think that this surely rises to a news story. Jim Moran has a penchant of attracting news and news about himself. His controversial comments about the Jewish community and their role and influence in leading up to the Iraq war received enormous attention. If he should make the same kind of remarks about the Iran situation, he will undoubtedly get more attention which he does not seem to mind. There are people who think we are planning to go to war with Iran. I suggest you read David Ignatius's column today in The Post and the remarks of a former head of Israeli intelligence (Mossad). This individual takes a far different view than I presume Moran does. But, thank you for pointing this out and I am going to inform the WTOP news desk about this event.

Hamilton cancelled, Rep Tierny had not showed up, at one point Rep Moran was reading licence plates of illegally parked cars!

The crowd was dead serious, slightly angry.

The  Impeach them both signs  were there for the taking.

Congressman John Tierney finally showed up, and then he and Congressman Moran spent most of their time talking congratulating each other for holding these various hearings (Tierney's in the House, Moran's tonight) and sucking up a bit to the crowd.

The Q&A from the crowd the produced the usual kooks and people interested in asking questions having nothing to do with the question at hand.

The frustrating part is that the Congressmen hedged and dodged the only pertinent question: what is being done by the Congress to actually box in the administration to prevent this war? Congressman Moran said that language had been included in the original defense appropriations bill in committee preventing the use of funds for actions against Iran, but that the language was removed due to 'heavy lobbying' once the bill reached the floor. Someone asked the obvious follow-up: Okay, who are these people that lobbied to have the language removed? Congressman Moran danced around the question, mentioning AIPAC and Congressmen Ackerman and Engel, but hedging and filibustering a bit to make sure he didn't step in it again on this topic.

At the end of the Q&A, one young lady asked the obvious question: why not begin impeachment hearings to at least gain leverage against the White House and keep all options open, to let them know that hardball can be played by both sides. Again, rhetorical tap-dancing by Moran. Congressman Tierney rescued Jim a bit by talking about how Jim had voted to refer Kucinich's bill to committee instead of outright tabling it, and that they thought it would receive some hearing there, but neither seemed eager to talk more about impeachment or get behind it.

The evening ended with a question by Ray McGovern, the ex-CIA analyst who pops up at these types of gatherings and asks the hard questions that elected officials hate to hear and hate more to have to answer. Again, why not impeachment? McGovern spoke pretty eloquently about the reasons for impeachment as tactical ways to put pressure on the admin (not to mention the fact that impeachment is the tool given to the legislature when dealing with a lawless executive), and how an impeached President giving an order to bomb Iran might not have the orders carried out due to being under impeachment. Again, dancing by the Congressmen. They thanked him for the question, and then got out of dodge.

I was pretty annoyed and not impressed by the answers given, so I went up to Congressman Moran and asked him, as a constituent, why was it that a Democratic majority could not get the appropriate language to the floor, and why didn't he just introduce a simple Sense of the Congress resolution that any illegal attack of Iran without congressional approval would result in instant impeachment of the President and VP? He basically blew me off, saying that he had already explained how the language was pulled out of the defense appropriations bill, disregarding my question, and then he turned and left.

Congressman Tierney explained that their job as Congressmen was to hold hearings, and that our job as citizens was to blog about and write letters to the editor, etc. I disagree -- their job is actually to lead, to get ahead of this issue, to find 218 sane voices and fight like hell to make sure that this war is averted.

Congressman Moran exhibited overall a decent understanding of US/Iranian history and is, in general, a pretty disarming and funny guy. However, it's clear to me that he could be doing a lot more to prevent this attack from happening, if he so wished. I suppose he deserves thanks for putting the forum together, but all it proved to me is that we are seriously lacking leadership in the Congress. It's like he gathered us all there to get us up to speed as to where things stood, and then shrugged his shoulders to say, "Well, what can I do? I'm just a congressman." Very frustrating.

I was glad to hear his perspective, as well.