Old friend of Heller gets surprise calls from war foes

Saturday, July 21, 2007 | 7:21 a.m.

WASHINGTON - Nevada Republican Rep. Dean Heller has endured all sorts of protests over his support of President Bush's strategy to continue fighting the war in Iraq.

There have been automated calls to his office. Letters and e-mails. Even rallies in Reno, in his Northern Nevada district.

But then they started calling his buddy from Carson High School.

Heller said a friend, whom he declined to name, has received a handful of calls from the anti-war group MoveOn.org urging him to tell the congressman to end the war.

"Maybe they're going into my yearbook or something trying to find friends," Heller said.

Heller said his friend told the callers, "You're talking about the wrong guy." His buddy told the anti-war folks that the congressman "is going to do the right thing."

Is this the latest grass-roots, anti-war tactic - peer pressure to get lawmakers to switch?

MoveOn.org's Washington chief , Tom Matzzie , liked the strategy, but said his group wasn't orchestrating it.

Perhaps some members of the grass - roots organization, who number 3 million nationwide, organically decided to dial up the congressman's buddy. Or perhaps the calls were part of the Iraq Summer campaign, organized by the anti-war coalition Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, which is making 1 million phone calls to targeted congressional districts telling voters about their lawmaker s' war votes. Heller is among those targeted.

But most likely, the four calls to Heller's high school buddy came from the coalition's campaign to target influential people around lawmakers to impress on them the need for their peer to vote to bring the troops home.

"We're urging political supporters, donors, rivals, friends and allies to call members of Congress and urge them to end the war in Iraq," said Matzzie, who is also working with the coalition this summer. A coalition activist in Reno has been calling Heller's top donors and urging them to tell the congressman to stop the war.

"Every politician wants to be liked , and part of being liked is having your friends agree with you," Matzzie said. "Maybe we should start getting high school yearbooks," he mused. "It's a good idea."

Heller was unswayed. Despite the anti-war sentiment being sent his way, he said his constituents stand by his decision to continue supporting the troop surge at least until September, when the top commander in Iraq delivers a progress report to Congress.

"The phone calls I'm getting are, 'You're doing a good job, do what you think is right, don't try to be influenced by some left - wing organizations,' " Heller said.