BLOG DAY FOR STEVE SARVI (D-MN)

Senator Amy Klobuchar endorses Steve Sarvi

John Kline boasts one of the most radical right and bizarrely extremist voting records in the entire Congress. In Minnesota only he and Michele Bachmann vote with far right Confederate representatives from Georgia, Texas, and South Carolina. Kline participated in 59 roll call votes regarding Iraq. He voted the straight Bush-Cheney line all 59 times, a breathtaking record even for a radical right Republican. His shameful record is that of the ultimate rubber stamp. Simultaneously, he was also screeching "Support the Troops" while participating in 23 roll call votes regarding military veterans. And 23 times Kline opposed veterans.

In 2006 Blue America supported former FBI agent and American heroine Coleen Rowley who laid the groundwork for the citizens of Minnesota's second CD coming to terms with what they have representing them in Congress. Today Minnesota activists have called for a Blog Day for Steve Sarvi. I asked Coleen if she could help us out with a look at the race.


Kline’s Ignoring of his own Constituents Provides Opening for Iraq War Veteran Steve Sarvi
 
-by Coleen Rowley
 
What if we lived in a country where we learned the president and vice-president had launched a pre-emptive war against an underdeveloped country that posed no imminent threat based on bad and misleading information? Years later the promised “cakewalk” for regime change that they said would cost no more than 30 billion dollars had actually escalated to between 2 and 3 trillion dollars?  And over 4000 troops had been killed along with 30,000 injured.  PTSD suicides were at an all time high.  And the public, who never really supported this pre-emptive war, now viewed the president, vice-president and all those who supported the misbegotten war as incompetent if not downright deceptive?  So much so that even the White House former spokesman feels that way. Unfortunately, this is reality.
 
What if the same scenario was now directed at another country, Iran, with potential plans to provoke an even larger “WWIII”?  What if more than 70% of American citizens opposed this new war and the country’s intelligence agencies reported that Iran is not an imminent threat?  And what if the President claims he still has the power to launch a new war based on authority from the last ongoing quagmire?  Again, this is sadly the reality.
 
Given this situation, it would make sense for war-weary Americans to contact their local representatives to request legislation that would prevent another war without congressional authority (in line with the Constitutional power of Congress to declare war).  This actually happened on December 13, 2007.  Constituents from all over the 2nd District (including Eagan, Shakopee, Apple Valley, Rosemount, Northfield, Burnsville and Red Wing) representing 332 residents and part of a nationwide group of over 160,000, took a simple petition to Representative Kline’s office in Burnsville.  The petition read: Americans don’t want another disastrous war in Iran. Congress must act now and make it clear that President Bush has no authority to strike Iran. Residents wanted to ask Mr. Kline to cosponsor a House Joint Resolution to prevent the President from starting another ill-conceived war.
 
What happened next, unfortunately, was an insult to representative democracy. Instead of meeting with residents, Mr. Kline’s staff gave them a complete run around. Even though our group of constituents, had called ahead to notify staff of the visit, no staff were available to discuss the issue or indicate the Representative’s position. We were advised, at one point, that we could travel to Washington, DC to speak with Kline’s military affairs person. However, the receptionist could not identify who the appropriate staff member would be to contact in DC. As a result, district residents could only leave the petition, with its pages of signatories, at Kline’s office.
 
A week passed and no response. So the leader of our group attempted to contact Kline’s office in Burnsville and DC. After a few fruitless conversations, she finally received a call back from Representative Kline’s District Chief of Staff (who ironically works in Burnsville) who told her that Kline considers the H.J. 64 resolution unnecessary and declared the bill “would not move.” A follow up letter was received on December 24 that said Mr. Kline would monitor the legislation, but did not want to take the military option off the table.
 
It was clear from this run around and evasive action, that Representative Kline favors President Bush’s ability to launch pre-emptive invasions and is not interested in restraining the President from taking such action. Yet this is in direct opposition to the Constitution’s Separation of Powers, which wisely gave the Congress the power to declare war, not the Executive Branch. Mr. Kline continues to ignore constituents in order to march lock-step with the Bush-Cheney Administration, as he has done throughout his terms in office.
 
Perhaps most distressing is the effort that had to be expended by constituents just to find out where their representative stood on this vital issue. Kline has repeatedly resisted calls for public meetings on important issues, choosing to rely on his “tele-town hall” robo calling where hard questions can be ignored or screened, and where planted questions, push polls and other manipulative campaign tactics can easily be used. Democracy just doesn’t work when constituents, especially those with opposing views (but those currently held by a majority of American citizens) can’t access their representatives! Democracy is based on deliberative dialogue and an informed citizenry.  It is a sad day in America when a Representative to our Congress fails to accommodate this most basic feature of representative democracy.
 
Even worse, during the winter of 2007, Kline’s staff called the police on an even larger group of his own constituents who were merely seeking to meet with him. That group, representing 700 other residents had to lobby Kline over the course of six weekly meetings to force him to relent and hold the only town hall meeting he’s held in years in the district. (As far as we could tell-- because he’s refused to answer questions like this-- he hadn’t held any face to face public meetings-- real town halls-- in CD-2 since early 2005 when he stumped in a couple of public libraries for Bush’s plan to privatize social security.) And of course Rep. Kline never followed through on his promise in April 2007 to hold future real town halls. 
 
Kline’s now considered to be the most "out of whack" Republican in the country. So no one should be surprised at the kind of anti-democratic tactics he needs to continue to maintain his grip on power here.
 
But it has gotten progressively more difficult for Kline to maintain this kind of repressive control.  Along with his tax-funded “tele-town” manipulation, Kline, more than ever, needs the corporate and Republican PACs to keep funding his Rovian-style big-buck campaign ads. Iraq War veteran and former city mayor and city administrator Steve Sarvi, on the other hand, has a lot of natural advantages.  He’s not only more knowledgeable of the issues but more in sync with our district’s residents’ needs and beliefs. Sarvi has also got the significant advantage of being on the side of democracy. 
 
Go to ActBlue and help Steve Sarvi bring a little democracy back to Minnesota’s 2nd District!