Nov 16, 2006

Lee a foe of the war since day 1

Bil Paul

Both black women grew up in the South or near-South in the 1950s and experienced segregation firsthand. Both attended schools run by the same Catholic order. Both eventually moved to California to start careers that eventually led them into politics. Both were originally Democrats.

Of these two, it's interesting that the daughter of an Army officer, East Bay Congress member Barbara Lee, became an anti-war advocate, while clergyman's daughter Condoleezza Rice became a pro-war hawk.

Now, due to Republican failures in the recent election, some of Rice's power has slipped away while Democrat Lee's star has risen.

Lee has represented the 9th Congressional District (generally covering the cities of Berkeley, Oakland and Castro Valley) in Washington since 1998. She's very popular with her liberal and black constituents: In the last election, she received a higher percentage of votes (86 percent) than any other congressional representative in a contested race in California. She also easily exceeded the percentages received by the governor (56 percent) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (59 percent).

That includes handily beating the 76 percent vote gained by Rep. Tom Lantos here on the Peninsula. On the subject of Lantos, the hawkish congressman seems to have seen the writing on the wall, and has gradually changed his tune about the Iraq war. Now, Lantos is poised to assume the chairmanship of the important House International Affairs Committee, although rumors suggest that some Democrats, who objected to Lantos' early support of the war and the Patriot Act, and his closeness to the Bush administration, wanted Rep. Howard Berman of southern California to assume the post instead.

Lee is also a member of the International Affairs Committee but has a quite different stance on the use of military force. She has the historic distinction of being the only member of Congress who, four days after Sept. 11, voted against a resolution granting President Bush the power to use "all necessary and appropriate force" against any entity associated with the suicide attacks. It was her single voice against 420 others.

When I watched the World Trade Center buildings burn, I said, "Someone's going to pay for this," knowing how strong the public sentiment would be for revenge. To buck this overwhelming attitude took a lot of courage. Lee's office phones were flooded with hate calls and the Capitol police assigned her bodyguards 24 hours a day.

To know where Lee comes from, know a little bit about her past. I had a chance to ask her about her younger years as well as other subjects during a brief phone call Monday.

As a divorced welfare mother with two young boys in the late 1960s, she gained entry into Oakland's Mills College at a time when students were agitating for black studies programs and better opportunities for minorities. She took a political science class and received an assignment to work on a presidential campaign in the year George McGovern and Hubert Humphrey were competing for the Democratic nomination. She thought she might flunk the class because neither candidate was "speaking to the issues," and didn't interest her (although she concedes that McGovern, a veteran, was advocating an end to the Vietnam War).

What ignited Lee's enthusiasm for politics was Rep. Shirley Chisholm's entry into the Democratic race (Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress, died just last year). Not many took her candidacy seriously, but Lee did, and as a class project, with others, organized Chisholm's northern California campaign. Lee brought Chisholm to speak on campus, where she convinced Lee "that if I really wanted to make a significant impact, I should get involved in politics."

Lee later earned a master's degree in social work from the University of California at Berkeley in 1975. But also during this Vietnam-era period she volunteered with the Black Panther Party. Because of this, detractors have tied her to communism, Angela Davis, Huey Newton and other firebrands. She admits, "I was pretty much a revolutionary. ... I wasn't a Black Panther Party member, but I was working with them on a variety of their community projects."

Lee's formal political involvement began with stints in the California Legislature from 1990 to 1998. Then, as a protegee of Rep. Ron Dellums, she was ideally situated to be elected to his position after he retired in 1997. In a speech early this year, Lee staked out her current views: "One thing you won't hear (President Bush) talk about ... is the price of his reckless, unnecessary war in Iraq. ... One Nobel Prize-winning economist has projected that the war may cost as much as $2 trillion. If the president believes in his policy, he should spell out how long it will take and what it will cost, and ask the American people to sacrifice for it. I believe our continued occupation of Iraq undermines our security and our standing, which is why (I have advocated bringing) our troops home, and why I have introduced legislation to prevent the establishment of permanent military bases in Iraq. ...

"Since President Bush took office, the number of poor people in America has grown by 17 percent, growing at a rate of more than one million each year."

Now, in the aftermath of the elections, Lee can say, "The rest of the county has caught up with where the Bay Area has been (politically)."

I commend Barbara Lee for acting on her strong beliefs rather that pandering to pollsters and advisers on how to win. Of course, representing a politically liberal district doesn't hurt.

Bil Paul is a columnist for the Daily News Group. Reach him at natural_born_writer@yahoo.com.