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Congressional
candidate Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., debates against opponent
Republican Ron Greer on Tuesday in Madison.
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MADISON - Republican challenger Ron Greer
blasted U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin Tuesday night for her vote against
giving President Bush authority to attack Iraq, saying it is foolish to
think Saddam Hussein doesn't pose an immediate threat to the United
States.
"What is enough evidence?"
Greer asked Baldwin. "A mushroom cloud in New York? Ten-thousand
people dying in the street like roaches?"
Baldwin fought back, saying Iraq's
neighbors don't want U.S. troops to invade and a first strike would
sacrifice the moral authority of the United States.
"It is way too dangerous.
Intervention, yes. Military intervention, no," she said, drawing
cheers from the audience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison student
union.
Although this is the first race between
Baldwin and Greer, they have a history that dates back to 1998, when
Baldwin, a Democrat, first won her House seat. Greer ran unsuccessfully
in the GOP primary and mocked Baldwin as a "left-wing
lesbian."
He has hammered Baldwin again this year
on her sexuality. He says she has a pro-gay agenda that threatens family
values and her anti-American voting record threatens national security.
Baldwin has compared Greer to Joe
McCarthy, the Republican senator from Wisconsin who persecuted anyone
suspected of being a Communist in the 1950s.
She calls his views on homosexuality
"medieval."
Baldwin, 40, the first openly gay person
to win a House seat as a non-incumbent, won re-election in 2000 over
history professor John Sharpless with just 51 percent of the vote.
Greer, 46, was suspended from his job as
a Madison firefighter in 1997 after handing out a pamphlet at a city
fire station calling homosexuality a "filthy scourge." He was
fired the next year.
Federal Election Commission reports
released Tuesday showed Baldwin had $320,593 in the bank as of Sept. 30,
compared to $4,856 for Greer. As of Aug. 21, Baldwin had $469,000, while
Greer had a deficit of $610.
Greer and Baldwin never sparred over her
sexual orientation during Tuesday night's debate. Greer instead pounded
away at Baldwin's stance on Iraq.
Wisconsin's four House Republicans voted
to give Bush authority to strike, as did Democratic Rep. Ron Kind and
Sen. Herb Kohl. The state's other four House Democrats and Sen. Russ
Feingold voted against it.
Greer said Hussein has weapons and the
United States should go it alone if it can't build an international
coalition.
"You lead," Greer said.
"You don't wait for someone else."
"Part of leadership is weighing the
dangers and risks as well as the benefits," Baldwin replied.
Baldwin also attacked Greer for wanting
to hold the line on grants and loans that help students attend college.
Greer said he supports a $5,000 limit on
Pell grants, the federal financial aid given to low-income college
students. He said students need to take responsibility for paying for
their own education.
"It's necessary to give folks that
responsibility and give taxpayers a break as well," Greer said.
Baldwin shot back that maintaining
current levels of aid is truly "shortsighted." She said
students are emerging from college with huge debts.
She said she is co-sponsoring legislation
to increase Pell grant levels from $4,000 to $7,000, as well as raising
other aid available to students.
"This is an investment that will
actually improve the economy," she said.
The two also clashed over whether to
include gender and sexual orientation as indicators of hate crime.
Baldwin said she supported the idea and
was working on legislation to do just that.
Greer countered that attaching gender and
sexual orientation to civil rights is highly offensive to him because he
is black. He said such a measure would hijack the civil rights movement.
Students closed the debate by asking
questions of both Baldwin and Greer. The debate slowly took on the air
of a college football game as the audience jeered and heckled both
candidates over their stances, which included:
- Universal health care. Baldwin
said the country needs to move toward it. Greer said it wouldn't work.
"If you like government controlling
health care then you haven't been to the post office lately or dealt
with the IRS," he said.
- Abortion. Baldwin said she
supports maternal rights. Greer said the only choice is the decision to
engage in sex.
- Stem cell research. Baldwin said
she supports broad funding for research. Greer said human
experimentation inevitably breaks down and threatens human life.
Jennifer Epps, a 20-year-old junior at
UW-Madison, told Greer she was from the same Milwaukee
"ghetto" where he grew up and she had "no problem
attaching queer rights to civil rights."
"Being 46 and being a part of the
civil rights movement, I believe I know more about it than you,"
Greer fired back.
A handful of Greer supporters rose at the
end of the debate to cheer, but were quickly drowned out by Baldwin
supporters screaming and chanting "Tammy! Tammy!"
Baldwin stood behind the podium and
smiled.
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