How To Run A Dirty Re-Election Campaign-- Meet John Kline and Diana Bratlie

John Kline has a record

You may remember Mike McIntee as the innovative Minnesota artist who created the videos for our Blue America campaign song last year, Have You Had Enough? This year Mike is volunteering for the Steve Sarvi campaign. Sarvi is running against one of the worst of the extremist Republican radicals, John Kline in a district just south of the Twin Cities. And he's up to his old tricks again. Kline, who's hallmark is dirty and deceptive campaigning, has hired one of Minnesota's most notorious dirt tricks operatives, Diana Bratlie. And Mike has done an entertaining and informative video about what Bratlie's been up to. It's worth watching:



Note at the end of the clip Mike explains that when he asked Bratlie why Kline refuses to hold public forums with voters and answer questions, she says "since Kline has a record, he doesn't have to do that." Since Kline is one of the Texas Tea Party clowns who is shilling for Big Oil in DC this week (instead of facing his constituents back home), we decided to take a look at his record. Let's start by asking ourselves if his constituents know that he has taken $118,705 in campaign "donations" from Big Oil-- which just may have something to do with the fact that he has rubber stamped every single bill, without exception, that Big Oil has wanted, bills which have led directly to skyrocketing fuel prices. ($36,800 of that has come from Koch Industries, one of the most venal Republican oil firms that rewards oil industry shills who sell out their home districts; they're one of his top donors for his entire shameless career in Congress.) I mean we are talking about a guy who has participated in 30 rolls call votes regarding renewable energy and who voted against renewable energy all 30 times-- a startling record for that $118,705!

John Kline's voting record is breathtaking-- even compared to other rubber stamp Republicans. When you look at the substantive roll calls that have divided the two parties, he's tied for the second worst position at the very bottom of the Republican barrel. His score is .047 (out of 100)-- identical to lunatic fringe extremists like Tim Walberg (R-MI), Mike Pence (R-IN), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Thelma Drake (R-VA), Trent Franks (R-AZ), and even worse than voting records by nationally recognized disgraces like Mean Jean Schmidt, Marilyn Musgrave, Tom Feeney, Scott Garrett and John Doolittle. Who has a worse voting record than John Kline? Lynn Westmoreland, the maniac who went on the Colbert Report 2 years ago, bragged about cosponsoring a bill to have the Ten Commandments posted in every classroom and, when asked to name the ten...

Colbert: What are the Ten Commandments?

Westmoreland: You mean all of them?–Um… Don’t murder. Don’t lie. Don’t steal Um… I can’t name them all.

As for Kline's specific voting record, the one that makes him immune from questions from his constituents:
Iraq War- voted with Bush and Cheney 59 times out of 59 roll calls; worst record in the entire House.

And when he came to the well-being of our active duty service men-- providing them with armored vehicles and health care and things like that? There have been 22 roll calls since Kline got to Congress and he's voted against our service members all 22 times.

Veterans? 23 roll calls, 23 votes against veterans.

But it isn't only military personnel and veterans he hates. He's voted against senior citizens, the unemployed, farmers, children, and victims of natural disasters, every single time there has been a vote. And it shouldn't surprise you to find out he's voted against women's choice every single time that has come up as well-- 13 roll calls since he was first elected.

So if he votes against everything and everyone, what does he support? Glad you asked? He has a 100% voting record in support of tax breaks for the wealthy, tax breaks for Big Oil, tax breaks for big corporations, and for people who commit hate crimes. And that's the voting record Diana Bratlie thinks he doesn't need to explain to voters in Minnesota! Perhaps you want to check out Steve Sarvi's record.

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!     

EXPOSING JOHN KLINE AND THE DEVIOUS TACTICS OF THE MOST "OUT OF WHACK" REPUBLICAN IN THE COUNTRY

-by Coleen Rowley

"Out of Whackness" is the highly appropriate term that the "Swing State Project" has come up with identifying Republican incumbents who should theoretically be extra vulnerable in a general election based on comparisons between their PVI and their voting record. The article describes them as "the wingnuts hiding in moderate districts." Based on that criteria, our Minnesota CD-2 Congressman John Kline is the most out of whack Republican in the country.

This designation will come as no surprise to Kline's constituents. When first elected, Kline positively crowed about representing George Bush's interests rather than those of his district. His previous position as Vice President of the neo-con inspired “Center of the American Experiment” (Minnesota’s own right-wing think tank), apparently cued him to the need to “finish the job” in Iraq. He already shared Bush’s enthusiasm for expanding the list of countries-- most having no connections to 9-11-- that the U.S. should go to war with. And his answer to: The War on Terror: How Will We Know When the War Is Over? was very much in sync with John McCain’s idea-- give it another 100 years.

As Bush's stock declined nationwide, Kline stopped crowing but his voting record remains 90+ percent lockstep with Bush-Cheney and the GOP. Kline is so partisan that in 2006 he told a group of disabled veterans that he wouldn't support a veterans' benefits bill simply because it was written by a Democrat.

A moderate Republican leader in Minnesota such as former Senator Dave Durenberger has even begun to criticize Kline for his misleading partisan stance on the energy crisis that serves only to enrich fossil fuel producers and auto makers.

But after unsuccessfully stumping for Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security in early 2005, Kline realized that he should no longer broadcast his partisanship. So now he does all he can to keep a low profile in the district. In early 2007, a group of Kline's constituents had to make six trips to Kline's office over the course of two months before he agreed to hold a public town-hall meeting. And even then, it's unlikely the town hall would have occurred but for the fact that Kline suffered some bad press for calling the police on his own district residents. When the people of his district came to his office asking him to do his job, his first instinct was to try to intimidate them with a police presence. Only because a committed group of his constituents refused to back down, did that one town hall meeting take place. Since then, Kline has only held 'tele-town hall' meetings on the phone, where he has complete control over who participates.

So how does one so "out of whack" as Kline keep his seat? First, try to never let any hard questions (like this one) be asked. Never furnish any information about issues or positions on a website or otherwise. (Kline's campaign website in 2006 consisted of only a few general paragraphs.) Don’t hold public meetings. Don't debate congressional challengers. (Kline even refused to supply answers to local newspaper voters' guides prior to the 2006 election.) DO take big money from special interests-- Kline obtained over $600,000 from PACs alone before the 2006 election which gave him almost $1.5 million total to use for negative ad campaigns produced by Rove protégées. Paint oneself as a hero. (The positive portion of Kline's ads in his five previous campaigns all revolved around a couple of photos showing him carrying the "nuclear football" for Ronald Reagan.)

And since 2006, the politician's dream come true: conduct lots of "Tele-Town Hall" robo calling into the district at taxpayer expense. The "Tele-Town Hall" developed by Rodney A. Smith, a former Republican national finance director, was pioneered by Kline and a half-dozen other Republicans in the lead-up to the 2006 elections. It worked so well for them that over a hundred Republicans are now employing this manipulative technology. Just like the screening and scripting that goes into Rush Limbaugh's radio show in terms of ability to pre-screen callers, plant questions, conduct push polls and other subtle campaign ploys and, the best part, it's ALL AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE! Tele-town hall robo calling substitutes for real constituent interaction and has become the foremost tool used to keep "out of whack" Republican incumbents in power.


Although they maintain equally right-wing voting records in terms of being Bush enablers, Kline even beats the truly whacky Michele Bachmann by a few spots for "out of whackness." In Bachmann, Kline has found an eager protege: substituting the "Tele-Town" robo calls for public meetings and turning down all public forum opportunities when you can't control the questions. (Last year, for instance the Humphrey Institute was able to host individual question and answer public policy forums with each of the Minnesota congresspersons and senators except for Kline, Bachmann and one other.)

The challenge is quite clear for Democrat Steve Sarvi, who recently was endorsed by Minnesota’s Democratic Farmer Labor Party to run against Kline. Sarvi is a great candidate. Unlike Kline and Bush, he’s reality based, with real experience on the ground in Iraq (as a Minnesota National Guard member) as well as considerable experience in city management in Minnesota. And Kline’s “out of whackness” does make him potentially vulnerable. But Kline still has the big money advantage given to him from corporate interests as well as the unique access, as an incumbent, to the taxpayer-funded robo-calling system that is said to substitute for real town hall meetings. Sarvi will therefore need to get Kline to answer questions in a public way either by debating or through newspaper forums, or via another real Town Hall meeting. In April 2007 Kline actually promised he would hold another public meeting in a few months. But that was over a year ago, and he's not kept his word. He’s probably hoping no one remembers that promise. Kline’s probably hoping voters only remember the ad about him being the hero who carried the nuclear football for Ronald Reagan. He has to hope that he's beat down the dream of democracy in this district via Rodney Smith's little black robo-calling box so that he never has to ever face constitutents' hard questions ever again. If Sarvi wants to send this out of whack Republican back to Texas, he must remind people what real democracy and real electoral representation is supposed to be.