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POLITICS-US: Congressman Trades Iraq Vote for Spinach
By Aaron Glantz
SAN FRANCISCO, Mar 22 (IPS) - A liberal Congressman who represents
California's picturesque central coast region is under fire for trading
his vote on the Iraq war for spinach.
Rep. Sam Farr, a Democrat from the hippy college town of Santa Cruz,
originally voted against the Iraq war and has voted against proposals to
fund it each of the last four years.
This time, though, he's singing a different tune - and critics say his
change of heart has more to do with the spinach industry than anything
else.
That's because Farr's district includes most of the lettuce and spinach
grown in the United States, an area often called "the salad bowl of the
world." Last September the farms were hit by a deadly e-coli bacteria
outbreak that caused U.S.-grown spinach to be pulled from store shelves
worldwide.
Now, Farr has inserted a 25-million-dollar disaster relief programme to
bail out California spinach growers into the 100-billion-dollar war
appropriations funding bill sought by the White House.
"It's very disappointing," long-time peace activist Sherry Conable told
IPS. "There was a lot of jubilation after the Democrats took back Congress
that Sam had finally stepped forward in the leadership and was really
trying to bring the war to an end, and I think this vote is just very
disturbing."
Farr denies that his support for spinach and Iraq are linked. He told the
San Francisco Chronicle his vote for Bush's war funding request "was about
turning the corner in Iraq".
He noted most Republicans will vote against the legislation because
Democrats have attached conditions on how the war would be waged. The bill
requires that combat troops be out of Iraq before September 2008, but
would allow President Bush to waive the restrictions.
"They want to go gung-ho," he said. "They want to escalate in Iraq. So
what would our 'no' votes mean?"
Farr's decision would appear to put him out of step with his more liberal
constituents. In 2002, the Santa Cruz City council was the first local
government body in the country to vote against the Iraq war. In September
2003 the council made history by being the first in the nation to call for
the impeachment of President Bush.
Conable, who pushed the impeachment resolution through the city council,
says peace activists can call Farr's office and write letters, but that
will only take them so far.
"He has a very safe seat," she said. "I think the moral imperative has to
come from inside him and I've seen it before. We can speak to that, but
ultimately, he's the one who will hold up his hand and make the vote."
Farr is hardly the only Congressman to change his position on the Iraq war
after receiving special monies for his district.
According to the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW),
the House appropriations bill contains 21 billion dollars more than
President Bush requested to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"None of this has anything to do with the war," the group's President, Tom
Schatz, told IPS.
Among the so-called "pork projects" listed by Citizens Against Government
Waste: 283 million dollars for the Milk Income Loss Contract programme, 74
million dollars for peanut storage costs, 60.4 million dollars for salmon
fisheries, 50 million dollars for asbestos mitigation at the U.S. Capitol
Plant, and 25 million dollars for spinach.
"People will go to almost any extreme to try to get special provisions to
help someone in their state or district and in turn they'll vote for
proposals they really oppose," Schatz said.
Like Farr, Democrat Peter DeFazio of Oregon voted against authorising the
war and previous war funding bills. He decided to vote for President
Bush's most recent funding request after Congressional leaders added 400
million dollars in funding for rural schools.
Like Farr, DeFazio's constituents are overwhelmingly against the Iraq war.
This week, the Oregon State House of Representatives passed a resolution
calling for a withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq. The cities of
Portland, Covallis, and Eugene have all passed similar resolutions, but
DeFazio's spokesperson said this week the school funding was more
important.
"That's pretty vital for our district, so we'll be voting for the bill,"
his spokesman Danielle Langone told the website Politico.com
"It frustrates me when what should be a straight up or down vote gets
muddied," the Quaker American Friends Service Committee's Kelly Campbell
said from the group's Portland office. "That puts Congresspeople in a
difficult position and it puts all of us who are trying to stop this war
in a difficult position. I'd like to see a system where we could actually
vote on particular topics and not force people to weigh unrelated issues
into a vote like this."
The House of Representatives began debate on funding the Iraq war
Thursday, with a vote likely on Friday. A House vote on continued funding
the Iraq war is expected Friday.
Meanwhile, the National Priorities Project, a Massachusetts-based
non-profit group, notes that for the more than 410 billion dollars that
have been spent on the Iraq war so far, the U.S. could have hired
7,115,508 public school teachers for one year, built 3,696,945 affordable
housing units, or given health insurance to 245,860,303 children.
(END/2007)
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