Los Angeles Times: Maverick Democrat is Lone Dissenter in House Vote
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-091501lee.story
Maverick Democrat is Lone Dissenter in House Vote
Rep. Barbara Lee is known for swimming against the tide. "Military action is a
one dimensional reaction to a multi-dimensional problem," she says.
RICHARD SIMON
Times Staff Writer
September 15 2001
WASHINGTON -- One by one, members of the House--virtually all wearing red, white
and blue ribbons--stood up Friday night to voice their full support for granting
President Bush authority to use "all necessary and appropriate force" against
those responsible for the deadliest terrorist assault in U.S. history.
Except for Rep. Barbara Lee, a liberal Democrat from Oakland, who opposed the
resolution that earlier in the day passed the Senate unanimously. The House
approved the measure, 420 to 1.
"Let's step back for a moment and think through the implications of our action
today so that it does not spiral out of control," Lee told her colleagues in
explaining her decision.
Military action will not prevent terrorism, she asserted. "This is a very
complex issue," she explained later in an interview. "Military action is a one
dimensional reaction to a multi-dimensional problem."
For the little-known Lee, a protege of the better-known but similarly
iconoclastic ex-Rep. Ronald Dellums (D-Oakland), it was not the first time she
had swam against a strong tide. She was the lone dissenter in the 424-1 House
vote in 1999 to authorize the bombing of Serbia.
Lee said Friday's vote was the toughest of her political career.
After agonizing, she said she came to her decision earlier in the day while
attending the memorial service at the National Cathedral for the victims of
Tuesday's attacks.
"As a member of the clergy so eloquently said, 'As we act, let us not become the
evil that we deplore,'" she said.
Lee, 55, daughter of a retired Army officer, said she hopes her colleagues and
constituents understand her vote. "I think people understand votes of
conscience," she said.
Lee worked for Dellums from 11 years before winning election to the state
Assembly in 1990 and state Senate in 1996. When Dellums retired, she won the
seat in 1998.
"Only the most foolish or the most callous would not understand the grief that
has gripped our people and millions across the world," she said in her House
speech. But she added, "Some of us must urge the use of restraint" in responding
to the terrorism.
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