Jul 19, 2008

The 100-day whirlwind

Speier makes quick mark in Congress with controversial stands

By Will Oremus / Daily News Staff Writer

On Jackie Speier's first day in office, she was booed by congressional Republicans for using her swearing-in speech to blast President Bush and Sen. John McCain on the Iraq war.

Now, 100 days into her first term as of today, she's being jeered by bloggers and hailed by environmentalists for her first bill, a controversial proposal to set a national 60 mph speed limit.

In between, she met with an arch-conservative congressman on earmarks reform, broke with her party's leaders on a wiretapping bill, became the only Bay Area Democrat to support an aggressive resolution on Iran - and won appointment to two coveted House committees.

"What was I elected to do, sit on my hands?" Speier asks jokingly. "You have to get in the mix."

As Speier holds two town hall meetings in her district today to report on her first 100 days since succeeding the late Tom Lantos in office, she'll have more to answer for than most rookie legislators. Colleagues and observers say she has used guts, savvy and a safely Democratic seat to make a quick splash in a House where seniority reigns.

"This is not a person who just came in like Mr. Smith going to Washington," said political analyst Larry Gerston, a professor at San Jose State University. "She clearly knows how to play the game."

If her first speech suggested that she was a strident Bay Area left-winger, Speier's actions since have confounded those who would pin her to a specific point on the political spectrum.

"I like not being able to be labeled," she said. "I think it's a much stronger position to not have people be able to pigeonhole you."

In June, she joined a host of other liberal Democrats in opposing a bill that allowed government eavesdropping on international phone conversations, though it was supported by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The vote appeared to confirm her anti-war credentials.

"Madam Speaker," she wrote in an open letter, "when are we going to stop pulling the wool over the eyes of the American people? The proposed FISA law protects no one other than the administration and those within it who may use this newfound power to snoop and spy in areas where they have no business looking."

In July, however, she endorsed a hawkish bipartisan resolution to ratchet up pressure on Iran. Critics argued the Ackerman-Pence resolution was tantamount to a naval blockade and could lead to war.

A blogger on the liberal site Daily Kos chided that after challenging Lantos on the Iraq war, Speier "seems to be channeling his ghost" on Iran.

On another issue dear to her, Speier has found herself outside the political mainstream entirely.

Appalled by the billions of dollars' worth of earmarks that lawmakers attach to major bills to please constituents or financial supporters, she turned to a libertarian-leaning Republican reformer, Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona. The two met in June and "really hit it off," said Speier spokesman Mike Larsen, who was there.

"If you went down the list of issues, most of them they're on opposite sides," Larsen said of Speier and Flake. "But on this issue, call it the 'good government' issue, they were like peas in a pod."

Speier said of her conservative colleague, "He's a purist. I really respect that he's so dedicated to this."

News of the partnership thrilled a man who once considered running against her. Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig, a reform advocate who flirted with a bid in the March special election, gushed about Speier's work in a June 25 blog post titled, "my brilliant congresswoman."

Now, for her first bill, Speier has picked a fight that transcends party lines. Her push for a 60 mph national speed limit mirrors the unpopular 55 mph federal standard that was repealed in 1995.

Speier will meet on the plan next week with Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia. Warner, for his part, trod more lightly by requesting a study of the idea before authoring a bill.

"We've had all the studies we need," Speier said. "It's just that everyone else is gun-shy because they don't want to deal with the flak."

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, who served with Speier in the state Senate, said he's been "very impressed" with her approach in Washington.

With the speed limit bill, he said, "She jumped into something that saves gas and saves lives, but also upsets some constituents. She didn't let that bother her. She did what was the right thing to do."

Political analyst Gerston agreed Speier has made bold moves for a freshman lawmaker. But he contends she has "selected her stands carefully."

"She's in a good place from which to make those kinds of proposals, from what will be a very safe district," Gerston said. "She won an election so one-sided it wasn't funny. Now she has the luxury of acting like a senior member even though she's the most junior member."

Bolstering Speier's standing will be a pair of sought-after committee assignments.

She was named in May along with other new Democrats to the Financial Services Committee, which meshes with her interest in consumer privacy. Then, earlier this month, Pelosi named her to the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, a powerful watchdog perch.

"It's not easy to get on good committees in Congress, and already she's landed two," Thompson said. He said the posts speak to Speier's skill as a political strategist.

Greg Conlon, the Republican nominee to face Speier in November's election, offered his own theory.

"She gave the (Democratic) party $250,000" in unused campaign cash earlier this year, Conlon said. "I'm sure that had nothing to do with her appointment to that committee."

Though he opposes many of her stances, Conlon said he likes the speed limit idea. And he conceded Speier has done more than just learn where the offices are in her first months in the Capitol.

"She's making her mark, so to speak, one way or the other," he said.



E-mail Will Oremus at woremus@dailynewsgroup.com.