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The Hon. Steve Kagen, Member of Congress, is posing for holy pictures on immigration. He knows that in a district like Northeastern Wisconsin, the polling is pretty clear that holding the line on illegal immigration is a hot button issue.

So Kagen hopped on the bandwagon with Heath Shuler’s SAVE bill, which is supported by Tom Tancredo and the Immigration Reform Caucus.

But don’t be fooled! Steven Kagen is NOT the strong borders guy he’s trying to act like.

He voted to allow illegal immigrants to form unions in the United States. (House Roll Call 117)
He voted against full funding for the construction of the border fence as mandated by Congress. (House Roll Call 490)
He voted to make it easier for illegal immigrants to receive federal housing assistance, instead of ensuring that the funds go to the low-income Americans. (House Roll Call 628, 814 and 875)

That’s Congressman Steve Kagen, D-WI-8, standing next to a gentleman from the Fox River Navigational Authority and Congressman Jim Oberstar, D-MN-8. After an official tour of the Fox River area with Congressman Oberstar, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, on which Kagen serves, there was a separate campaign fundraiser with Kagen and Oberstar.

The same day that Rep. Kagen was towtowing to Chairman Oberstar, and using him to raise money from the road builders, I got an email from Citizens Against Government Waste. CAGW is a highly respected outfit out in D.C. that fights against pork, earmarks, and other wasteful government spending by members of both parties.

The email announced that Chairman Oberstar had been designated the August “Porker of the Month.”

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named House Transportation Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) Porker of the Month for August, 2007. In the wake of the bridge collapse in the congressman’s home state in which at least nine people were killed, Chairman Oberstar’s immediate reaction was to propose a “temporary” 5 cent increase in the gas tax to raise $25 billion within three years for a new bridge trust fund. …
The 2005 highway bill contained $2 billion annually for bridge reconstruction. During its markup of the bill, the House Transportation Committee considered increasing that figure to $3 billion a year. The committee not only failed to include the higher level of bridge repair funding, it opened the door for members of Congress to stuff the bill with nearly 6,500 pork-barrel projects worth more than $24 billion, about the same amount now being sought by Rep. Oberstar with his proposed tax increase.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported recently that Rep. Oberstar is the second-greatest transportation porker in the House:

“As part of a spiking trend of congressional ‘earmarks,’ legislators are wrapping up a $284 billion transportation bill with more than 4,100 special projects selected by members of Congress themselves. One of the principal beneficiaries is Rep. Jim Oberstar, the longest-serving House member in Minnesota history and the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation Committee. Under a version of the bill passed recently by the House, Oberstar would claim $151.6 million in special projects - half the state’s total of $302 million in earmarked funds. It’s the second-largest haul of any member of Congress, after Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska. Young’s district is his entire state.”

In an October 2006 press release, Steve Kagen promised he would “end all pork-barrel projects.” His campaign website promises to “free our government from the influence of political insiders and corporate special interests.” But when he has the opportunity to raise campaign cash from an interest group by featuring the man who hands out the pork to that interest group, he has no problem doing so.

1. Steve Kagen and Medical Marijuana:
From failed US Senate candidate Ben Masel in a 2005 DailyKos comment:

Spent some time with him [Steve Kagen] at Fighting Bob Fest. Good first impression.
It should be no suprise that my first question was drug policy. He came out unequivocally for hemp as an agricultural commodity, and was fairly knowldgeable on its advantages, especially for a district whose economy is dominated by the paper industry.
Turning to medical marijuana, I was in for a suprise. He supports its use only in non-smoked forms. Turns out that 25 years ago he published a paper on mold and bacterial contamination of street marijuana, and thus considers it unsafe.

Steve Kagen’s position on Marijuana in the House this last week:

Shamefully, one of those was Wisconsin Democrat Rep. Steve Kagen, who joined Republicans Jim Sensenbrenner, Paul Ryan and Tom Petri in voting against Hinchey to continue funding federal efforts aimed at subverting state medical marijuana laws. His fellow Democrats, Tammy Baldwin, Ron Kind, Gwen Moore and David Obey all voted to protect patients in the 12 states with state laws.

Someone doesn’t want to tick off suburban moms…

2. Prudence and Proportionality
I showed up on Mirror of Justice this week (MOJ is the nation’s main Catholic legal thought blog) with an email comment responding to a very misguided fellow comment-emailing-reader. This, in turn, set off a series of posts on Catholic considerations in the voting booth. It was an interesting exchange…

3. Driving Potential Students Away, Part 47In the May edition of COLUMBIA, the worldwide magazine of the Knights of Columbus, there’s an article from the Catholic writer Russell Shaw on “Dissent and Human Dignity.” In it, he takes on Dan Maguire’s arguments one by one. He also makes it pretty likely we won’t get any new admissions candidates whose dads read the magazine… (You can find the hardcopy of the magazine in the Raynor, 2nd floor, right by the bathrooms)

A statement today from John Gard (HT: Sykes):

“Today, I’ve taken the first steps towards gathering the resources I’ll need to run a winning campaign to represent the 8th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. I believe the people of Northeast Wisconsin deserve a congressman who will look out for the best interests of our hard-working families and fight for our Wisconsin values.

“Steve Kagen and I have some very real differences on some of the most important issues facing our country.

“Since his election to Congress, Steve Kagen voted for a budget that would pave the way for the largest tax increases in American history. I believe families are seeing too much of their paychecks taken up in taxes. I would have voted differently.

“Steve Kagen voted to spend Social Security dollars on other government programs. I believe Social Security dollars should be spent on Social Security only. I would have voted differently.

“Steve Kagen voted against fully funding the construction of a fence to guard our borders, and he voted to allow illegal immigrants to have access to federal housing assistance funds. I believe we should stop rewarding illegal behavior and start protecting our borders – immediately. I would have voted differently.

“I think it is also telling that 75% of Steve Kagen’s campaign contributions are from Washington, D.C. special interest groups. It certainly shows where the bulk of Congressman Kagen’s support lies.

“I’ll make a final decision later this year, but Cate and I are looking forward to traveling Northeast Wisconsin to talk about how we can build a better and brighter future for all of our families.”

I am hopeful that this tone of contrast, that focuses on Kagen’s record in Congress, continues. In 2006, we were stuck with nasty, personal ads talking about whether he took Medicare patients or whether he ever hired an attorney. Now that we have a year of votes in Congress, Gard’s campaign can do the simple, classic: He voted this way. I would vote the other way. Which way would you vote?

UPDATE: Minutes after posting this, I received an email “Gard Gazette” with the statement. The bottom italics paragraph gives the campaign’s brief Gard biography: “John Gard represented Marinette, Brown and Oconto Counties in the State Assembly from 1987-2006. Gard was the architect of Wisconsin’s groundbreaking welfare reform initiative, and he helped pass the largest property tax cut in state history. Gard and his wife Cate live in Suamico. They have two children.”

UPDATE II: I see the release now on Wispolitics and also they’ve got a very good story with reaction from Lassee, Wieckert, Jadin, and NRCC. Lassee would be Terri McCormick all over again. Wieckert and Jadin would both be more serious candidates, and Wieckert specifically discounted the role of the state and national Republican establishment in designating the candidate. None the less, the NRCC has its man: “John Gard is a battle-tested candidate and a proven leader who we believe has what it takes to defeat Steve Kagen,” NRCC spokesman Ken Spain said.

The release has Mark Graul as the contact person - Graul is the grand poo-bah of Wisconsin GOP strategists… he managed Green’s successful upset of Jay Johnson in 1998, his subsequent reelects in the 8th, the 2004 Bush campaign in Wisconsin, Green’s failed 2006 gubernatorial effort, and the successful 2007 judicial election of Annette Ziegler to the WI Supreme Court.

A wonderful (relatively) new blog out there called Little Miss Sunshine brings to our attention new advertisements up in the 8th Congressional District:

I just got in and turned on the 6:00 news. Right before my weekly dose of the Insider and celebrity gossip, I see a Steve Kagen ad.
It touts his vote to increase minimum wage, veterans benefits, some other accomplishment I missed while I had to run to the restroom to puke, and now his ‘work to make drugs more affordable.’
The closer: “Steve Kagen is off to a good start.”

The ad is run and funded by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of the most liberal members of today’s union movement.

I’ll echo Little Miss’ closing comment:

Yuck. It’s early for these kind of ads. Seems Dr. Millionaire knows he’s vulnerable …

I am trying to unravel the logic in this statement, and quite frankly there is none. It is an illogical statement. I received this nugget today as part of an email from Kagen for Congress asking for a donation ahead of the June 30 reporting deadline.

After Northeast Wisconsin voters rejected [one of] (sic) Dick Cheney’s most reliable rubber stamps in last fall’s election in favor of Dr. Kagen, the energetic Congressman has become one of the White House’s worst nightmares — an independent leader who insists on putting partnership ahead of partisanship.

Why would the White House, a bunch of Republicans, fear, consider a nightmare, a Democrat who is an “independent leader” who “insists on putting partnership ahead of partisanship”? Shouldn’t that be just what the White House wants? Isn’t that the definition of Ben Nelson from Nebraska, a Democratic US Senator who votes with the White House fairly often?

If Steve Kagen, Democratic House member were an “independent leader who insists on putting partnership ahead of partisanship,” wouldn’t that make him Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s worse nightmare, because she could not rely on him to toe the party line?

Moreover, in addition to being false on the logical front, it is also false on the factual front. Steve Kagen has voted the Democratic line 96.5 percent of the time in the 549 votes thus far in the House. The average House Democrat toes the party line 92.7% of the time. The average House member counting both parties votes the caucus’ suggestion 89.9% of the time.

You’ll recall how often Democrats and Jim Doyle slammed Mark Green as a “rubber stamp” for Prseident Bush by voting the party line just 90% of the time. Yet Kagen is voting it 97% of the time! But we’ve come to expect this from the Dems.

How do we know?

0. NEW: Larry Sabato, the super-pundit from UVA, looking into his crystal ball, ranks Kagen one of the vulnerable freshman fifteen, and rates the seat a toss-up. (HT: MJS)

1. Robert Novak tells us so in today’s Evans-Novak Political Report - “Two endangered Democrats — Representatives Nick Lampson (D-Tex.) and Steve Kagen (D-Wis.) — have called for Jefferson to resign from the House, even though he has not been convicted of any crime.”

2. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees is up with TV ads in the districts of nine vulnerable Democratic freshman. The buy, for $500,000 between the nine, is a 30-second spot praising Kagen’s votes in favor of a higher minimum wage.

Look at the nine: Brad Ellsworth (D-IN); Joe Donnelly (D-IN); Steve Kagen (D-WI); Nancy Boyda (D-KS); Heath Shuler (D-NC); Chris Carney (D-PA); Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY); Tim Walz (D-MN); Tim Mahoney (D-FL).

All freshman Democrats, all very vulnerable.

The Capital Times reports on how Kagen defended his vote for the Iraq War spending supplemental:

“The vote was about securing the equipment necessary to protect our troops against an incompetent president and his failed policies,” Kagen said.

And here I thought it was about securing the equipment necessary to protect our troops from terrorists and insurgents who hate America and freedom.

Then he goes on to say,

“Simply put: We’ve done our job, we’ve removed Saddam (Hussein). It’s time to bring our military home,” Kagen said.

First off, I thought Kagen was against going into Iraq in the first place; if he’d had his druthers, Saddam would still be in power. Second, if we had removed Saddam and left a week later, Iraq would have descended into all out civil war three years ago.

“There’s only one person who can end this war today — President Bush. Because we don’t have the votes to bring it to an end,” Kagen said.

I love when we get this line from Democrats. We give you a majority in both houses of Congress, and you can’t even get your own caucus lined up behind a solution to the issue that largely gave you that majority.

Today from Robert Novak’s Evans-Novak Political Report:

Having passed the first quarter of the 2008 cycle, House Democrats are extremely optimistic about their chances of holding the House majority. Buoyed by their lead in the congressional generic ballot — which has widened since November’s election — they also claim that their polls in the 50 most competitive congressional districts could bring them a nine- to 11-seat gain in 2008. Such a gain would be an unprecedented second surge by the party following its 30-seat gain last November.

This may seem too optimistic, given the number of shaky seats they will be defending — particularly those in the chart below. Democrats’ success in the last election would suggest that they are clinging to more competitive ground this time than they were in 2006. Although they did manage to seize some House seats they will be able to keep, they also won some seats solely because of GOP corruption. These are the most likely to return to the Republican column in 2008.

He then lists 13 seats as “Democratic Seats Likely to be Targeted.” Kagen’s margin of victory makes him one of the six must vulnerable of those 13. Good golly.

Now that all the data is online, everyone is thinking about the Quarter 1 reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

First off, in much of politics, life is relative. Here in Wisconsin, Kagen gets a fine headline in the hometown paper: “Kagen building his campaign coffers for re-election run.” Kagen raised just over $150,000 this quarter. That’s a lot of money, right?

A national comparison, however, shows Kagen is in the bottom of the pack for contested House seats. From Roll Call, via the House Race Hotline Today:

According to the DCCC, the 29 members of its “Frontline” program raised an average of $291K in the first three months of ‘07 … Freshmen Reps. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY-20) and Ron Klein (FL-22) “were the standouts” raising $690K and $610K, respectively. … Only four of the 29 Frontliners raised less than $200K: Reps. Jim Marshall (GA-08), Tim Walz (MN-01), Steve Kagen (WI-08), and Michael Arcuri (NY-24).

Put in context, then, Kagen’s numbers are pretty pathetic. The numbers behind Kagen’s pathetic performance should also raise eyebrows. Of his 23 individual contributors, 7 are lobbyists and political consultants. And he picked up plenty of PAC money as well: $5000 from the trial lawyers, and contributions from the PACS of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (railroad), American Crystal Sugar Co., Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (mining co.), Manitowoc Co., International Transmission Company (power co.), Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis (Jack Abrahmoff’s old law firm), Wells Fargo Co., and WE Energy. Not to mention 31 professional associations and unions PACs.

Not saying it is bad that Kagen raised any of that money, just pointing out this is from that man who told us in the fall: “Washington, D.C. is embroiled in the biggest corruption controversy in a generation, a growing scandal of illegal corporate cash contributions, sinister lobbying by special-interests, and an unprecedented abuse of power that trickles down into every corner of our country…” You just can’t say those things, and then take all kinds of money from corporations and lobbyists.

As Kevin points out:

85% - The percentage of donations (in $-value) “Man of the People,” “Spinner of Tales,” and Self-Made Man Rep. Steve Kagen took from Political Action Committees and Party Commitees in the 1st Qtr of 2007.
3% - Percentage of itemized donations (in $-value) to Kagen’s Campaign that came from his own Congressional District. In state, it’s a mind-blowing 7.6%. Feel that “Hometown Love!”

We all know this seat is going to be a real battle again in 2008 - why isn’t Kagen acting like it?