Speed Gibson

The rest of this hour of The Wendy Wilde Show was a telephone interview with Colleen Rowley, who is seeking the DFL endorsement for the Second District U.S. House seat currently held by Rep. John Kline. Here are three representative exchanges.

Wendy Wilde: [John Kline, the] guy you would be running against, I’ve taken a look. His voting record is like 98% along the Bush lines. Whatever they ask for this guy votes for. That’s not very Second District. That’s not very Minnesotan.

Colleen Rowley: Yeah, […] to represent all of the constituency of a district is the goal, and if you vote lock step on highly partisan issues, I think [you’re] really going to have a tough time explaining to the people how you were voting to represent them.

You don't need me to fisk this. But where was the concern for the late Senator Paul Wellstone's voting record, either in lock-step with the Democrats or the short end of a 96-3 vote? He had no trouble explaining his votes, for Wellstone was at least honest about it. And I'd be willing to bet that Martin Olav Sabo hasn't strayed too far from his party's leadership, either. But let's move on.

Wilde: You’re really well known, best known maybe for the letter you wrote to FBI Director Robert Mueller at that time. You wrote there that the issue is fundamentally one of integrity. And I think it’s really interesting that you would point that out because we’ve been seeing throughout the Bush Administration a repeated raising of the eyebrows over integrity. Do you feel that the issue of integrity has been resolved?

Rowley: Integrity, or what I also call ethical decision-making is the issue. So much of the double-speak on these issues, certainly the false intelligence of the Weapons of Mass Destruction. And so much of this really can be summed up as an issue of ethics and ethical decision-making. And of course we also know now with the various other scandals, the Tom DeLay issues in the House Ethics Committee, that we need more strengthening of ethics in House Ethics Committees […] right now to address these problems and raise the standards. It’s an issue of National Security of course, because if you don’t understand what initially caused the problem, how are you able to able to effectively remedy the problem. In ethics, there’s something called cover-up of course, and it’s just a common human nature thing to not want to admit a mistake, to basically not admit criticism. But if you act in that vein, you don’t fix the problem. I think the Iraq war is going in that direction right now. There’s no real momentum to looking at the problem, and talking the hard issues and then dealing with them, because we’re simply going down the same path and trying to dismiss that there’s even a problem to begin with.

In public speaking, there's something called babbling of course, and it's just a common human nature thing to not want to stop talking, to basically not admit vacuousness. Finally, consider:

Wilde: Tell us, why would you be a better person for [the Second District]?

Rowley: […] There’s something called the silent majority, and I’m hoping they can become the little more active and vocal majority, because those people’s interests are simply not represented by either partisan extreme. When I speak to groups, [I sensed] a large, growing unease in the country that they are not really being leveled with. You see [people] understanding now that this double-speak is going on. […] It’s been asserted many times that we have to be tough on the war on terrorism, but we also have smart and we can’t make mistakes and do things that compound the problem. And I think people out there are understanding that.

Rowley used the "double-speak" metaphor at least twice in this interview. But who is doing the double speaking? The Democrats? The Republicans? Or Colleen Rowley? This entire response is generic, could apply as easily to the DFL as the GOP. Translation: "I'm not with them! I'm a moderate! Right down the middle. Of course, that would mean you'd have no idea which way I'd lean on any given issue, but at least I'm not an extremist partisan like, say, the signers of The Declaration of Independence. For I am an ethical decision-maker."