Ames Progressive

Following a Leonard Boswell press conference on energy featuring Senator Tom Harkin Saturday in Des Moines, I introduced myself to one of the reporters at RDG Planning and Design. “If you can find a good lead out of this, you’re a better journalist than I am,” he told me.

I’m at Greg’s now looking over my notes and seeing the guy’s point. I’ll set aside my audio recorder, too, and just share with you the highlights, courtesy of The Des Moines Register.

Here’s Tony Leys’ lead: “The two senior Democrats in Iowa’s congressional delegation declined Saturday to take stands on proposed construction of new coal-fired power plants in the state.”

Several paragraphs later, the conference in brief: “Their comments came during a news conference the men called to tout an energy bill that just passed the House and is pending in the Senate. Boswell and Harkin said the country needs to move aggressively to conserve energy and increase use of alternative energy sources, such as wind, solar, biofuels and hydrogen. Boswell said he supports continued research into making nuclear energy safe, but Harkin disagreed, saying he does not believe nuclear waste can be stored safely.”

And then, on whether Boswell supported or opposed the creation of new coal power plants (Democratic primary challenger Ed Fallon is opposed): “I’ve been a big advocate, since I’ve been up on the Hill, that we ought to do all the science that we can. If they can bring us technology where we can use that resource in a clean manner, then we’d be foolish not to do it.”

That’s all there really was to it. Some feel-good environmental optimism and not a lot of specifics amidst a bit of vague contradiction. No mention of Boswell’s primary challenger, but the event seemed to be intended to drum up a bit of media coverage on Harkin’s endorsement of the congressman to push back against Fallon.

To be fair to Boswell, I approached him after the event to ask him about his recent decision to sign onto Dennis Kucinich’s House bill calling for the impeachment of Dick Cheney. As you may recall, I had’t been too favorable toward the Boz in my prior analysis of the issue.

On his decision to cosign the impeachment bill: “I met with a group of progressives … and we talked about this, and [I had] a long conversation with them. And I have said all along – I’ve felt all along – that if it came up, the impeachment process, I would support it.

“So [after] we had that discussion not too long ago … I sat down with staff and said, ‘You know, that’s where I’m at. I just haven’t gotten involved in it because I’ve talked to the leadership. Who’s more progressive than John Conyers?’ And John said, ‘We can’t make it happen.’ And so I’ve been applying my energy on doing other things.

“But there seemed to be some strong feelings that it would be good to be on the bill, so I went back and said, ‘Well, that’s what I feel,’ and I’m on it.”

On his response to the charge that this was politically motivated: “I say nonsense, because I was on this issue since the get-go.

“This president has lied to me, and I feel very strongly about it, so I went early on and talked with John Conyers, and you can just go check with him yourself if you want to. And I said to exorcise the last administration over the Clinton situation. [He] said [by] the time we would get there it would just bog us down and we probably couldn’t get there anyway with the way the numbers [of sympathetic representatives] are right now.

“He said we probably ought to concentrate on other things. So I’ve been concentrating on other things.”

On the Bush administration’s charge to war: “I’m one of those that believed in the commander in chief when he said, yes, there are weapons of mass destruction that [are] coming down on Americans. And knowing what I know and what I’ve been trained to know in my ears, that brings a whole new picture to my mind.”

If anything, the conversation left me with the impression that Boswell was just pulling a political maneuver. I do have a sneaking suspicion, however, that a lot of House (and even a couple Senate) Democrats – Boswell perhaps included – privately would like to see impeachment proceedings, but are justifiably afraid of the repercussions (like blowing the presidential election and Congressional gains).

Either way, Boswell’s either standing up against a criminally incompetent administration or fishing for votes in response to a primary challenge that was unexpected until fairly recently. Maybe he’s gotten ballsy and is doing both. Either way, I’m calling it a step in the right direction, if only a baby step. Not because of impeachment, but more broadly because it’s resulted in a move toward progress.

I’ll leave you with this video of writer/activist Rob Kall hounding Conyers on impeachment. I think it puts things in perspective.