My representative, Barbara Lee (D Oakland/Berkeley) is great. She almost always votes how I want her to. She sponsors the right bills. Even by coastal California standards, she is a hard core progressive. She was ranked as the 6th most liberal member of the House. More liberal that Pelosi. Far more liberal that Kucinich. I am happy to be represented by an African American woman, because I think diversity in congress is important, and we don't have enough African Americans or women.
She voted no in 2001 on the Authorization for Use of Military Force when everyone else in congress rolled over and played dead. She's smart. She's brave. She's outspoken.
So I am happy for her to stay in office. And she will as long as she wants to, because Oakland and Berkeley love her. There is no point in getting involved in her reelection campaign. She won 86% of the vote in 2006. But frankly, this is boring. How often can I write to thank her for continuing to be frickin' awesome? Not like the good old days when I lived in Sue Kelly's district (NY-19). That made for some great angry letter writing.
When I lived in Mahopac NY, and had Republican Congresswoman Sue (I am not a rubber stamp) Kelly 'representing me' I could really vent some frustration into letters. Letters laying out why she is an idiot, letters pretending to be even more of an idiot than she is. Good times.
Barbara Lee on the other hand, just fails to live up to the standards of idiocy I grew to expect from my Representative. In 2001, when everyone else in congress was trying to burnish their mindless president following credentials, she said of the Authorization for Use of Military Force against Terrorists,
"It was a blank check to the president to attack anyone involved in the Sept. 11 events -- anywhere, in any country, without regard to our nation's long- term foreign policy, economic and national security interests, and without time limit. In granting these overly broad powers, the Congress failed its responsibility to understand the dimensions of its declaration.... The president has the constitutional authority to protect the nation from further attack and he has mobilized the armed forces to do just that. The Congress should have waited for the facts to be presented and then acted with fuller knowledge of the consequences of our action."
If you are not familiar with how active and amazing she is, scroll through some news stories about her from the last few weeks. She is leading the charge that Pelosi should be leading to defund the war. (Pelosi secretly wishes she could be as cool as Barbara Lee, but is afraid.) She is right on the environment. She is right on education, civil rights, Darfur, immigration, international policy, oversight and so on.
So do I support her? Absolutely. Do I admire her? Very much. Does being represented by her make things exciting? No. With Rep. Lee, I already know that the vast majority of the time she will do exactly what I hope she will. There are bumper stickers all over Berkeley saying, "Barbara Lee speaks for me." And it is true. She actually does seem to speak for most of her constituents most of the time. But Berkeley is a place used to being enraged at authority figures. People in Berkeley accuse their elected representatives of being fascist at the drop of a hat. We love to hate our officials. How can we hate Barbara Lee? We can't. She's too good. Too reasonable. Too smart. Too on the ball.
Let me clarify that I don't think she personally is boring. I don't think that. Rather she makes me complacent with my representation. I trust her, and therefore don't feel the need to put much effort into cajoling her.
Oh sure, she may not be perfect. She is human so she isn't perfect. But I wouldn't trade her for your Representative. Except there is a good chance that your Representative is more interesting to yell at.