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Opinion Columns Editor's Note: A moderate with reason to celebrate
Editor's Note: A moderate with reason to celebrate
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Mike Thompson walked into a Saturday mid-afternoon meeting with the publisher and editor of The Triplicate decked out in his congressional uniform of blue suit and red tie. I was glad I’d fancied up after a morning hike by putting on a corduroy shirt with my blue jeans. Asked why he was so nattily attired for a visit to the remotest outpost of his First Congressional District, Thompson shrugged and said, “I’m celebrating.” The natural follow-up question, “celebrating what?” somehow never got asked. But as far as his own political life, the veteran Democrat does have a lot to feel good about.
His party has regained the White House and enjoys sold majorities in
the Senate and the House, where Thompson holds powerful posts on the
Ways and Means Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence. On
the former, he was well-positioned to help procure the long-awaited
funding for the dredging of Crescent City Harbor’s federal channel. On
the latter, he can delve into all manner of intrigue in the war on
terror.
Another thing to feel good about, ironically, is a job he was ultimately passed over for. You may not be aware of how close Thompson came to being selected by President-Elect Obama as the new secretary of the interior last December. Thompson was considered one of the front-runners by insiders and was supported by an array of interests, including the many outdoor sportsmen groups that have long considered him one of their own. Obama was clearly looking for someone with credentials as a Western moderate for the Cabinet post overseeing the nation’s public lands. At one point U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein called Thompson to ask if he was seriously interested in the position before she made a call on his behalf. “Well, what would you do?” he asked her, genuinely torn between the lure of a high-profile national office and his desire to continue representing a region that stretches from the Napa Valley to Del Norte County. Ultimately, the post was offered to Ken Salazar of Colorado, who gave up his U.S. Senate seat to accept it. Thompson emerged with a higher political profile, and he doesn’t have to oversee a Department of Interior mired in a difficult transition from one administration to another. He could also be celebrating the fact that he no longer works in a California government that is devastated by budget deficits. Instead, he’s part of a federal government that is doling out copious amounts of money to try to keep the economy afloat. Go to his Web site, mikethompson.house.gov, and click on “Economic Recovery in Action” and you can see the growing list of federal payouts for projects in the First District. Here, too, Thompson can polish his moderate credentials as a member of the Blue Dog Democrats. They consider themselves fiscal conservatives, by Democratic Party standards, and while they’ve gone along with the stimulus spending, they’ve also exacted promises from Obama and congressional leaders that major new spending measures will be offset by spending cuts or higher taxes to avoid driving deficits even higher. Del Norte is the most politically conservative county in Thompson’s district, but he won strong electoral support here last fall. There reportedly wasn’t an empty seat at a Saturday night fundraising event for the congressman at the fairgrounds. I wrote last week about the need for more “passionate moderates” in public life, centrists who work as doggedly as the people on the fringes of issues. It’s good to be represented by one in Congress. |
