A Bluestem Prairie

Late morning news digest: Iraq visit and everything after

We listened to Representatives Walz and Bachmann on Mid-Morning with Kerri Miller. It was a great contrast.  Walz talked about how tenuous and simplistic an assumption it was that one could make snap judgments assessing a situation after a few hours in a country, then talked about various measurements for considering the Iraq effort.  Walz reiterated his belief that the administration had rushed into this war without properly exhausting other options.

He stressed the need to get on with reconstruction projects (less than 5 percent of the money set aside for such projects has been spent) and criticized the the Bush administration's priorities. He also repeated his view that the Administration rushed into the Iraq War without exhausting other avenues.

Bachmann gushed on about her feelings and the facial expressions of those she met on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, throwing in an anecdote or two. She talked at length about her idea that Iran is a major player in the Iraq War.

Her ideas about Iran are, well, we'll let our friends in the Sixth's blogosphere take them apart.  But they do illustrate the sharp contrast between those members of congress who are stoking the notion of going to war with Iran, and those of someone like Walz, who was critical on the show of the war we already have, but did not babble one word of hysteria about Iran.

Both were asked about dealing with the recession. Walz favored getting money into the hands of those who will spend--an approached favored by the Federal Reserve chair, while Bachmann said she wanted to cut  corporate tax rates to 25 percent. She did say she'd be open to proposals for stimulus packages.

But I had to laugh aloud at her response to a question about the coming campaign season, when she talked about being out in her district talking to people.  When was that? 

And here's another sharp contrast between Bachmann and Walz.  It's not just Bachmann's paranoid fantasies about Iran that would make Richard Hofstadter sit up in his grave and salute her style, versus
Walz's focus on the fact at hand. The representatives' differing notions of what constitutes meeting with the public contrast as deeply as the ying and yang of the Taoist tradition.

It's a frequent complaint of friends and bloggers in the Sixth that Bachmann has not held a single town hall meeting or forum since entering Congress.  They look with envy to the First, where Walz has held dozens and dozens of public meeting, most well publicized, to listen to what his constituents thinks about policy issues ranging for the Iraq War to the Farm Bill.

In the netroots, our friend in Southwestern Minnesota's Corner House Comments asks Good Lord! Does Bachmann have a clue?:

Over at Think Progress they have a story featuring comments made by Minnesota’s Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). Apparently she made this comment:

I am so proud to be from the state of Minnesota. We’re the workingest state in the country, and the reason why we are, we have more people that are working longer hours, we have people that are working two jobs.

What can I say? According to her standards I must be a slacker.

Walz mentioned this remark in his interview with Kerri Miller, noting that he thought that was a peculiar measure of economic health. Walz thought a sign of a healthy economy would be a person having one good job that allowed him or her to spend more time at home with the family.

Lots of coverage of the trip to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Star Tribune reports Rep. Tim Walz visits war zones to study veterans' care system  The Post Bulletin reports Walz's Iraq trip reveals deficient medical records for troops and MPR Walz calls for better access to soldier's medical records.

Young and old join campaign to oppose 'toxic trade'. In December, Walz expressed this support of another consumer safety proposal, the SAFE Consumer Product Act.  Walz's news chief of staff, who is based in the Rochester, formerly worked for the Steelworkers. The protest must have made for an interesting reunion.

Vox Verax looks at Walz returning his pay raise to the Treasury in  What's this? A congressman who actually practices what he preaches?. An investment blogger notes that

Tonight on C-Span, six democratic members of the House of Representatives, including Minnesota congressman Tim Walz and Keith Ellison, took the podium for an hour to discuss an economic stimulus package for middle income Americans that would pump $100 billion into the economy and target subsidies for health insurance, small businesses, employment, housing crunch victims, and more. Several of the congressmen mentioned that although Americans continue to increase productivity, wage increases have not moved forward

We happened to be channel surfing and caught some of that. However, when Iowa Rep. Steve King got on and started carrying on about categorizing legislation into whether or not the efforts would define the nation or not (with health care insurance, economic recovery and so forth getting assigned to the no column) we found a far more exciting re-run of Law & Order somewhere.

Saturday, Congressman Walz will be visiting National Pheasant Fest 2008 in St. Paul.  There will be a discussion of the Farm Bill:

Farm Bill Forum - Pheasants Forever's Farm Bill Forum on Saturday, January 19th, at 10:30 AM will include the three most important people shaping the Federal Farm Bill: Acting U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Conner; U.S. Senate Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA); and U.S. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN). The Forum will be held in the upper ballroom level of the Saint Paul RiverCentre Seminar rooms 10 and 11. The Forum will be preceded by a press conference at 10 AM with a special wildlife conservation announcement from the United States Department of Agriculture.

Admission is $10.  Tomorrow, however, there will be a parade:

National Pheasant Fest 2008 will kick off on Friday with a Bird Dog Parade led by Ron Schara and Raven. Over 25 different sporting dog breeds and their owners will march in the parade that begins at 12:30 PM at Roy Wilkins Auditorium, site of the Bird Dog Stage presented by Purina. The parade route will then make its way outdoors around the Xcel Energy Center, starting at 5th Street West, then 7th Street West, and finally onto Kellogg Blvd West. The parade will conclude at the Saint Paul RiverCentre entrance prior to the ribbon cutting and opening of National Pheasant Fest at 1 PM.

Let's hope their owners bring the dogs' sweaters for that jaunt. It's cold out there!

Press call: House VA subcommittee on investigations and oversight studies medical care issue in war zones

Update: The congressional staff sent the picture at the left of Representative Walz having dinner with members of the U.S. Navy deployed to Iraq. [end update]

We'll be posting at length about this morning's press call about Congressman Walz's trip to Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Pakistan and Germany. A couple of brief observations here.

First, while those who've never served in the military may be puzzled by a congressional travel delegation focused on medical care and medical record keeping and sharing, we weren't puzzled by this mission at all.

A number of our former students and their friends were back in town for the holiday break; many of them are serving in the Guard, Reserves, and ROTC. One night while we were watching Resident Evil: Extinction, the on-screen casualties turn their banter into a discussion of having accurately documented medical histories. Having friends explain the issues last week provided a good context for understanding the significance of the problem. 

Essentially, much of the care provided by the VA  is based on military medical records. In their absence or incompleteness, the veteran has to prove a condition is service related; many of the problems Korean and Vietnam era vets experience in getting care through the VA are rooted in this problem. Agent Orange claims have been particularly troublesome for lack of documentation. The committee's oversight may forestall similar problems for my patriotic young friends as they enter the VA system.

Second, the press call was interesting because travels by members of the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight took Walz and others outside of the Green Zone to forward medical stations and bases. Walz also visited Camp Cropper near the Baghdad Airport to see conditions under which detainees were being kept.

There's more:  tales of new equipment such as ground ambulances in Afghanistan, Walz's refusal to make a simple snap judgment about the progress of the war, and other details.

Walz also mentioned meeting a lot of area service people and calling parents, spouses and sweethearts with messages for those he encountered. He was impressed with the quality and morale of the service members he met, and awed by the skill and commitment of the medical corps for treating the wounded warriors--and providing the documentation for their medical care in the years ahead.

KEYC-TV: Moveon visits Walz office

KEYC-TV reported yesterday Walz Petitioned to Oppose Iran War (shorter title in noon broadcast Walz Petitioned):

Activists pay a visit to Representative Tim Walz's Mankato office today Members of Moveon.org and others presented a petition with more than 200 signatures asking Walz to back a bill that would require Congressional approval for military action in Iran.

Mike Daly says, The action today, is to absolutely make sure Congress is certain if the President can take war action in Iraq, he should not feel he has war authorization in Iran. Walz says he agrees with the petitioners in principle, but that safeguards are already in place. Representative Tim Walz says, "We have more tools to make sure the President is constrained than just this. I think those are the things that the President understands his responsibility and ours are the same. But they need to be done responsibly and based on good evidence."

Walz says he's not sure that bill will make it past Congress, but he believes President Bush lacks the support to wage war in Iran.

The Political Party blog at the PB Bulletin picks up on the story with a slight rewrite, but forgot to link to KEYC-TV:

Activists paid a visit to U.S. Rep. Tim Walz's Mankato and Rochester offices Thursday. Members of Moveon.org and others presented a petition with more than 200 signatures asking Walz to back a bill that would require Congressional approval for military action in Iran.

Mike Daly said the purpose action of the action is to send an unambigious signal to the president that just because he can wage war in Iraq, he should not feel he has war authorization in Iran. Walz says he agrees with the petitioners in principle, but that safeguards are already in place. Walz said, "We have more tools to make sure the President is constrained than just this. I think those are the things that the President understands; his responsibility and ours are the same. But they need to be done responsibly and based on good evidence."

Walz says he's not sure that the bill will make it past Congress, but he believes President Bush lacks the support to wage war in Iran.