Congresswoman Herseth-Sandlin…Listen to the Butterfly Wings!

Thursday, 12 November 2009 21:15

Written by Sam Hurst

EDITOR'S CORRECTION: In an earlier posting this column, Sam Hurst reported that Congresswoman Herseth-Sandlin had never had a primary opponent. That is not the case. She defeated Rick Weiland in the 2002 Democratic primary. She was defeated by Bill Janklow in the 2002 general election. She has not had a primary challenger since.

By recent accounts Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin is exasperated with the base of her party...maybe a little angry, but mostly exasperated. Not with everyone, just those unwieldy populists. Those "liberals" who don't understand politics in the real world.

She is choking on the bone of incumbent lament. Powerful members of Congress can't exactly go around saying that their constituents are dumb, but in her private moments, she thinks, "Why don't these people trust me?" For three-term incumbents like Herseth-Sandlin, just beginning to earn a little Capitol Hill juice, the lament evolves ever so slightly from, "Why don't the people back home trust me?" to "These people need to trust me." This is the voice of condescension that suggests, "I have influence. I know how Washington works. I know what's best for South Dakota."

This incumbent's lament was given voice recently by former Democratic Party chairwoman Judy Olson Duhamel. In an Open Letter to Democrats, Olson Duhamel defended Congresswoman Herseth-Sandlin's opposition to the House health reform bill: "I'd ask you to consider the fact that her comprehension of the complexity of health care issues is far greater (my emphasis) than the understanding that most of us have." Really?

Is Chairwoman Olson Duhamel asking South Dakota Democrats to believe that the Congresswoman's comprehension of health care reform is greater than that of former Senator Tom Daschle, who has studied the failures of the private health insurance system for thirty years, written extensively about health reform, and advised the President? Daschle is squarely opposed to Herseth-Sandlin's approach--as is South Dakota's senior Senator Tim Johnson. Is the Congresswoman's comprehension greater than 73% of American physicians (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112818960), the American Cancer Society, the American Medical Association, hundreds of physicians, nurses and health professionals in South Dakota, the AARP, health committees in the House, 65% of the American people (http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/06/public-support-for-public-option.html) and the Executive Board of the South Dakota Democratic Party? Oddly enough Congresswoman Herseth-Sandlin's level of comprehension is exactly the same as the Republican Party and private insurance companies.

The Congresswoman is in trouble with her base.  She can't correct that problem by calling her base dumb.

But let's take the logic of Olson Duhamel's Open Letter on its face. As they say, "Making legislation is a lot like making sausage. Everyone wants to eat it, but no one wants to see how it gets made." Olson Duhamel asks us to believe that Herseth-Sandlin is gaming the system for our benefit. Playing hardball. Negotiating the best deal for South Dakota. But our congresswoman ain't the only player at the table. Let's consider the effect of her gamesmanship. The final health reform vote in the House was 220-215. In a House of Representatives with a huge Democratic majority (258-D, 177-R) five votes is razor thin. Herseth-Sandlin announced two days before the vote that she would oppose the bill. That decision, along with the opposition of other like-minded Blue Dog Democrats, allowed conservative Republicans to jam through a last-minute anti-abortion amendment, and forced Speaker Pelosi to accept the amendment in order to hold enough votes to pass the bill. Women take note. Where was Congresswoman Herseth-Sandlin when American women needed her? She was in opposition to her own stated principles on abortion and women's health. If policy is all about politics and deal-making, our Congresswoman just got played by the far right.

Olson Duhamel's Open Letter is worthy of a serious review. She writes, "Democrats have traditionally been a party that avoids litmus tests and remains open to diverse viewpoints-an approach that yields success. I'm asking that we do just that-respect diverse points of view." Well said, Madame Chairwoman...but upside down.

The value of diversity is to give voice to those who do not have power. You use the diversity argument to suggest that  Congresswoman Herseth-Sandlin, one of the most powerful politicians in the state, is the victim, and that the grassroots rebellion should be more accepting of her position even though it stands in direct opposition to the Democratic Party. The implication is that the grassroots of the Party (those who support the President and our senior Senator) should shut up! and accept whatever position the Congresswoman decides to take in the interest of her career.

The most thoughtful part of Olson Duhamel's letter is a listing of Herseth-Sandlin's accomplishments. The crown jewel, according to Olson-Duhamel, was passage of the 2008 Farm Bill. Considering her family background and the role of agriculture in the state's economy, it makes sense that farm policy is a Herseth-Sandlin priority. "She fought tirelessly to ensure that the new Farm Bill represented the interests of our farmers and ranchers." The Letter suggests that her "signature achievement" was the Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Program. So how's that working out, Congresswoman?

There is no more fiscally irresponsible program in the federal budget than the Farm Bill. It is stuffed full of waste. It promotes large-scale industrial farming and systematically undercuts small family farmers. It is designed to produce unhealthy food, impoverish small towns, and speed the environmental destruction of the nation's ecosystems. American farm policy makes it almost impossible for "beginning farmers and ranchers" to get a start. All in the name of commodity corn!...More corn! More corn! More corn!

Corn is also at the heart of Hersth-Sandlin's energy policy. Olson Duhamel celebrates the fact that our Congresswoman is a member of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, but the sum total of her contribution is to advocate that we grow more corn as an "alternative fuel", and then turn around and exempt farmers from any participation in efforts to reduce the impact of their own production methods on greenhouse emissions. Climate change is a serious problem the Congresswoman tells South Dakotans, but it would be too much of a burden on farmers to ask them to reduce their contribution to the problem. Like all farm belt politicians, Herseth-Sandlin tells us that she is a strong advocate of  "second generation" ethanol. That is, ethanol from wood chips, corn stalks, switch grass, and other agricultural waste. But researchers have been chasing "cellulosic ethanol" for almost half a century, and it is nowhere near practical application. Meanwhile...more corn! More corn! More corn!

At a time when the nation is crying out for new, innovative leadership on farm policy, Herseth-Sandlin is lost.

Olson-Duhamel turns next to Indian policy. "No one, and, I mean no one questions Stephanie's commitment and results when it comes to advocating for Indian Country." But federal policy towards Indian Country is a mess. Neither the federal government nor our state government has any respect for our treaties with the Lakota. The bureaucracy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs is so dysfunctional that it cannot keep its own accounts. The Indian Health Service is chronically under-funded and under-staffed. Our reservations are mired in the deepest poverty in the nation. In the face of federal policy it is a wonder that tribes survive at all. Only in the Orwellian world of Washington would a Congresswoman choose the utter failure of federal Indian policy as the standard of her commitment and success.

What we have here is a failure of leadership masked as fiscal responsibility and pragmatism. A true leader, say, someone who won her last election with 70% of the vote, might reasonably be expected to take an issue like Indian policy and engage it on its most fundamental level. Lead us! Engage the tribes on the real issues of sovereignty, land use, language, religious freedom, education, health care. Tackle the historical quagmire of failure and indifference. Take us to a new way of thinking about Indian policy. Do it because Lakotas vote 90% Democrat. Do it because such poverty should repulse us. Do it because you are an attorney and you respect our treaties. Do it because you are a Blue Dog and federal Indian policy is a fiscal nightmare. If the Congresswoman had wanted to make a difference in the health care debate she would become a serious student of the Indian Health Service, write a comprehensive reform of IHS into the health bill, and then lead us, teach us about why Indian health is important for all South Dakotans.

In the end, Herseth-Sandlin is in trouble with her base because she has never had to develop a relationship with her base. In six elections she has only faced one primary, in June 2002, and as a result, she has never been seriously tested as a Democrat. She does not owe allegiance to the base on any core values. She operates on the assumption that the base owes its allegiance to her.

On one score Olson Duhamel is right. Democrats are a "big tent" party that rarely enforces litmus tests on its candidates. Maybe Herseth-Sandlin opposed health reform (and her Party) as a matter of principle, or because she has calculated that the political middle in South Dakota supports her, or because she thinks she can get a little something extra by playing hardball with House leadership. South Dakota Democrats do want to trust her. She would be mistaken to think that the roar of butterfly wings that now challenges her is just about health care. It is not. Her problem is indifference, and her fear of leading in hard times. She has time to explain herself to the base of the Democratic Party, but it will be hard for her. She has never had to do it before.

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Written by Sam Hurst