It may be the dog days of summer, with the temperature in much of the US soaring, but dedicated partisans have launched a national lobbying campaign to support President Bush's missile defence plan when it comes to Congress next month. The coalition, called Americans for Missile Defence, said it plans to collect more than a million signatures, inundate lawmakers with letters and raise money.
"Missile defence, like very few other issues, has the capability to immediately unite conservatives of all stripes," Mr David A. Keene, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, a member of the coalition, told the New York Times.
Some Democratic leaders in Congress are trying to cut the missile defence spending plan by shifting dollars for spending on conventional weapons, such as jet fighters and warships. So the conservative coalition said its goal will be to bolster Congressional Republicans who are being pressured by Democrats.
Democrats have argued that President Bush's proposed $8.3 billion missile defence budget, a $3 billion increase from last year, is exorbitant when basic military needs, such as maintenance and ammunitions, are being trimmed.
Although public opinion polls show voters tend to support the idea of building a missile shield, they also show that support eroding when voters are informed that more than $60 billion has been spent on the programme in the last two decades.
The coalition includes Americans for Tax Reform; United Seniors Association, which ran a $2 million advertising campaign for President Bush's tax cut last spring; High Frontier, a leading advocate for missile defences in the Reagan administration; and the Eagle Forum.
The group also has a celebrity spokesman - Mr Jeffrey Baxter, the former guitarist for the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan.
"When I look at people in North Korea, Libya, Iraq and Iran, understand folks, these folks don't sit around and watch Seinfeld and eat Milky Way candy bars all day," Mr Baxter said at a news conference. "They have a different concept, a different culture and a different way of looking at things." Though not a member of the coalition, a Democratic union representing defence industry workers has also begun urging its 750,000 active and retired members to push for missile defence.
"To my Democratic friends on Capitol Hill, I would urge them to forgo the short-term, tactical, partisan advantage," Mr R. Thomas Buffenbarger, the president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers told the New York Times. "Can our party really afford to be seen as weak on the defence of America's cities? I think not."