Gordon Smith watch

Senator Gordon Smith has shown some encouraging tendencies in the last year or so, and he needs to be rewarded for even approximately correct behavior.

As an example, in early April he voted for the Boxer-Snowe Amendment to repeal the odious Global Gag Rule on international family planning assistance. The rule--put in place by the Reagan Administration, ended by the Clinton Administration, and re-established by George W. Bush on his first day as president--was designed to prevent US international aid to organizations who provide abortion services, advocate changes to anti-abortion laws, or even counsel women on the availability of abortion services, even if these activities are paid for by privately raised funding and did not use US dollars.

This is good.

This week he stood up against the slash-and-burn, tax-cuts-above-everything-else Republicans in the White House and Congress to limit somewhat the amount that the Bush 2006 budget would remove from Medicaid funding.

This is also good.

Alas, he seems better on the details than on the big picture: Having pushed through less onerous Medicaid cuts, Smith then voted in favor of still more regressive tax cuts--the Senate approved cuts even deeper than Bush and the House wanted--and against pay-as-you-go funding for these GOP spending sprees.

This is not good.

And Smith, who serves on the Senate Finance Committee, is one of the senators being coy about whether he'll support Bush's plans to phase out Social Security. True, back in February, he told David Sarasohn of the Oregonian that he had "not signed up to anyone's plan."

But that doesn't promise anything--it doesn't say what he's for, and it doesn't say what he's against. It simply assures us that he wasn't at the time already bought and paid for. And for that, I suppose, we should be grateful.

But two months later, he's still doing the dance of the seven veils. (Try finding any mention of Social Security on his web page? Good luck.)

Even after last Thursday night's press "conference," Bush has offered little in the way of specifics about his Social Security plans, and Smith is pointing to this as reason not to commit himself.

This is not good either.

Despite his promising performance in other policy areas, says the Oregonian,

Kelly Steele, the state [Democratic] party's spokesman, said Smith's voting record on Social Security indicates that he will support the Bush plan "unless Oregonians force his hand."

So it's time to force his hand.

Call the Senator's office:

Washington DC: (202) 224-3753

Portland OR: (503) 326-3386

Thank the senator for his Medicaid work, and then ask what his position on Social Security phase-out is. When you get the polite run-around--and you will--make these three things clear to the person at the other end of the phone:

1. Any plan that doesn't preserve Social Security as a defined contribution system is unacceptable.
2. Any plan that reduces benefits and raises the federal deficit is unacceptable.
3. Smith's up for re-election in 2008.

While you're waiting for a reply, here's an interesting question to puzzle over: Has Smith drifted toward more generally moderate positions, or has the rest of his Republican party moved so far to the right that, mainly by staying put, he appears to have become more centrist?