Green not afraid to vote against the White House By Mike Shaw For The News-Chronicle Whether U.S. Rep. Mark Green is re-elected to Congress next week or not, he will have to return to Washington for a "lame-duck session" of Congress until members' terms expire in January. And if the too-close-to-call presidential race winds up in the courts like it did four years ago, Green would likely be forced to relive what he describes as his worst experience as a congressman. "With the uncertainty (following the 2000 election), the Democrats wouldn't negotiate on anything - and I'm not sure if I blame them, politically," said Green, a three-term Republican from the Green Bay suburb of Hobart. "None of us mind the hard work and the long hours, but it's occasionally when things get adrift like that that it gets frustrating. That's when you say to yourself, 'I'm a thousand miles away from (wife) Sue and the kids, and here we are doing nothing but naming highways.'" Green certainly wouldn't mind, either, if voters heading to the polls next Tuesday give him a solid reaffirmation by granting him a fourth two-year term. He's been returned to office by wide margins every two years since beating incumbent 8th District Rep. Jay Johnson, a Green Bay Democrat and former television news anchor, in 1998. He faces another longshot challenger Nov. 2 in Dorthea "Dottie" LeClair, chairwoman of the Outagamie County Democratic Party. Despite shuddering at the thought of a do-nothing session to close 2004, Green said the rewards of his job far outweigh the bad days. "Right now, I truly love the job because I understand I'm privileged to have a front-row seat to history," he said. "I'm proud to have visited (our soldiers in) Iraq and to serve on two anti-terrorism subcommittees. "And I'm very proud of what my office achieves for people who contact us on a day-to-day basis: a senior citizen who needs help with Medicare or Social Security issues, or a business that needs assistance with the federal bureaucracy. At a parade, people will pull me over and say, 'Thanks for my helping my dad.'" Green said national issues - like the war on terror or Bush's tax cuts - tend to dominate the conversation at the expense of other important concerns. "When you have as hotly contested a presidential race as we do, it's a distraction for some people," Green said. "When you reach out to shake hands, the talk is always about issues in the presidential contest, some headline they've just seen. The debate in (my race) is being driven by the presidential race." And though Green has been a staunch supporter of Bush by and large, he stressed that he's not been afraid to vote against the White House when he felt it necessary. "While I have a very clear preference in this election and enjoy working with President Bush, I disagree with him on some points," Green said. For example, Green has opposed some of the White House's spending bills out of concern about mounting federal deficits. And he said "both extremes are wrong" in the debate over free trade and U.S. jobs lost overseas. Bush has generally tried to reduce international trade barriers, while Democrat-leaning labor unions at home would like to see a more protectionist approach that doesn't put jobs at risk. Green said he evaluates trade deals on whether they will benefit Wisconsin overall. He liked a pact with Chile because it opened up markets for Wisconsin farm goods, but disliked one with Singapore because it would "open the door for more knock-off, artificially produced, low-priced goods" on American shelves. "Every trade deal should not be supported, but nor is it correct to believe we should not be trading," Green said. "Ninety-five percent of the world's population lives outside of the United States, and our dairy farmers produce far more than we could ever consume (ourselves)." In the terrorism war, while Bush's heart and convictions are in the right place, Green said the United States should own up to some mistakes, such as initially refusing to allow lower-level soldiers in Saddam Hussein's army to rejoin security forces during the occupation. "Most of them were just mercenaries, and now we have no way of locating them," Green said. He also said Bush should be more careful about the "cultural context" of some of his pronouncements, such as wanting to get al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden "dead or alive." That seemingly harmless Western-movie cliche will be viewed differently in the Middle East, Green said. "All presidents need to be cognizant that even if they're just speaking to the American people, it's going to be carried around the world," Green said. On spending, Green said lawmakers face difficult choices because bills usually come out of conference committee loaded with new pet projects but requiring an up-or-down vote without amendments. At that point, he must determine whether the good outweighs the bad and if the overall spending falls within acceptable limits. At the moment, Green said he favors increases only for defense and homeland security measures, while holding the line on domestic spending. Green also had differences with Bush's energy bill, saying it did not do enough to encourage renewable energy sources - like wind or solar power - over oil exploration. He also said it failed to diversify and standardize the types of cleaner-burning "boutique" fuels that can be used in pollution "nonattainment" areas like southeastern Wisconsin - a factor, he said, in volatile gas prices that can go up "by 50 cents overnight" because only one type of fuel blend is currently permitted here. "If we hold down spending and grow the economy at the same time, you can reduce the deficit," Green said. "We could have done more, should have done more." But Green will push for what he feels are wise investments, such as two of his main legislative accomplishments: a new federal courthouse and an outpatient veterans clinic, both in Green Bay. He also landed $500,000 for a new paper-science technology center at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. "It'll take the potential of our university and technical colleges and apply it to the commercial sector to create 'new-economy' jobs," Green said. "What Madison is doing in biotech ventures, we're going to do for papermaking." Green also led efforts on the federal level to combat chronic-wasting disease - which threatened Wisconsin's deer herd - and plans to sponsor a conference next spring to help Door County shipbuilders tap into federal contracts. Another priority is a bill designed to clear up a massive backlog of DNA evidence in crime labs and create uniform standards nationwide for how that evidence is viewed in court. He's joined in the bipartisan effort by a fellow Republican, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, and two prominent Democrats, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Rep. Joseph Biden of Delaware. "We know that there are innocent guys behind bars and guilty guys out on the streets," Green said. "And because the bad guys move across state lines, I have to care how evidence is processed in New Jersey. It may not be admissible there." Lastly, Green is not rooting against the Green Bay Packers when they play the Washington Redskins this Sunday. In a bizarre political coincidence, dating back to 1936, the incumbent president has won every time the Redskins won their last game before the election. So, if that's to be believed, the Packers must lose for Green's party to remain in the White House. "What I tell people is that if the Boston Red Sox can break the Bambino Curse and come back from down 0-3 (against the Yankees for the American League pennant), then anything can happen," Green said. Mark Green Age: 44 Hometown: Hobart Family: Wife, Sue; three children. Education: Bachelor's degree from University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire; law degree from UW-Madison. Elected Offices Held: Member of Congress since 1998. Assistant House majority whip and member of Judiciary and International Relations committees, among others. Served three terms in Wisconsin State Assembly from 1992-98.