Tale of two senators

Barack Obama is little known or tested, and yet the majority of the mainstream — and even alternative — media are in adoration of him. Feeding the public with daily streams of Obama accolades and hopeful projection, the hype is building and big name celebrities and financiers are falling in line to propel him to the presidency.

Conversely, Sam Brownback has a deep and impressive record as United States Senator from Kansas, and he has been out there across the media spectrum over the past several years advocating causes important to the country as he sees it. The media who have gone to Sen. Brownback for these interviews know him, some of them call him the standard-bearer of the social conservatives, and at the same time they call him unknown. Can’t have it both ways.

Here’s an interesting piece on Brownback’s official entry into the campaign for the presidency over at First Things, showing once again that you’ll get better information on a lot of important stories and issues in the ‘alternative media’ than the big elites. Russell Saltzman was at the event when Brownback made the announcement.

(You may have missed it; Senator Hillary Clinton’s same-day announcement took up all the subsequent television time.)

I wondered if that was just a fluke, the two coming on the same day & all.

Brownback strikes me as an “un-political” politician. I have three occasions to recall on the matter.

Shortly before September 11, Brownback’s staff organized a forum on embryonic stem cells at Donnelly College in Kansas City, Kansas. I have written on the subject–in First Things, among other places–and, being local, I was invited to participate, along with a bio-medical researcher from the University of Indiana. The senator was very good making the case against the use of embryos for stem cell use. You’d expect him to be very good; I wasn’t surprised. What did surprise me was how he handled the question-and-answer period.

The three of us were seated on the stage, passing a microphone back and forth as questions were directed to us. Now, a lot of dumb questions got asked that night. I will confess to very little patience. Brownback, though, was inordinately patient, thoughtful. Some of the questions directed to him seemed conveniently phrased to let him get in a little opposition-bashing, a little demagogic demonizing of the pro-choice people. He ignored every opportunity. He was respectful of the views opposing his own and explained to the audience his “faith-based” opposition to embryonic research in a way so pastorally inspired that it made me lean over to him and ask, “Who’s supposed to be the pastor here?”

Brownback is always that well-prepared, and that respectful of others, no matter who they are or what they believe.

After that I started following him in the news a little better and later happened across his work seeking to halt the growing international “white slavery” sex business. Hardly anybody else was talking about it. It sure wasn’t keeping me awake at night. Thinking politically, I wondered, where’s the voter appeal here? Who is the constituency for an issue like this? Fact is, there aren’t any votes and there isn’t any constituency. Maybe it’s a hobby horse for the senator? Maybe, but surely he’s got an adviser or two to tell him knock it off, there’s nothing to be gained here. By this time, I knew a couple of his staff. It’s not a hobby horse, I was told, it’s what he thinks Congress should address, and even if he did have a warning he’s likely go ahead and do it anyway because it’s what he thinks. So there.

Sen. Brownback puts that kind of commitment into Darfur, Congo, Rwando, Kenya….especially the children being terrorized there by murderous war lords. And into the Middle East, Somalia and the Islamic Courts threat there. And a host of other issues both national and international.

Last one. Hurricane Katrina was more or less coincident to the Senate judiciary committee hearings to confirm Alberto Gonzales as attorney-general. Brownback’s on the committee. I caught him in a Fox & Friends interview maybe two days post-Katrina, shortly before the hearings opened on Gonzales. He was telling folks how to connect to hurricane relief, stressing an organization he thought was very good. He was back after a break and was asked if, as rumor had it, the Democrats planned to rough up Gonzales in the hearing so as to diminish any chance for a later Supreme Court nomination. Again, a perfectly phrased softball question that dangled some irresistibly partisan bait in front of a ranking GOP senator. Brownback waved it off and instead brought the conversation back to Katrina relief.

Brownback did a full-strength social-conservative sort of thing you’d expect from a social conservative, but he did it in fifteen minutes, delivered no jabs at anyone, and had an oddly endearing tendency to walk over some applause lines. As the local paper put it, he focused on “the value of freedom, building stronger families, and expanding personal opportunities with tax policy and business growth.” Yawn.

That’s probably how the media will treat Brownback, for a while anyway.

Yet, weirdly, like the gushing groupie I don’t want to be, I felt myself, well, thrilled. I dunno. He’s an awfully nice guy, and so far in the presidential run-up, awfully unknown. I wonder which may be the greater obstacle to a Brownback presidency.

It’s interesting the media portray Obama as a really nice guy, and pretty much still unknown. Except they’re making him into a celebrity. So neither is an obstacle to a candidate the mainstream media embraces.

That means its up to the people to embrace the candidates who represent them. Watch them and listen to what they’re saying. Wherever you can find the coverage.