Steamboats, Heineken beer and the 8th District
 | Rob Crowe
Columnist
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When I was a kid, my brothers and I liked to be around my uncles because they were usually working on something mechanical, a car or tractor or piece of farm equipment.
I'm not sure they always appreciated it, often they would tease us but we liked that, too. One of their favorite tricks was to give the nearest nephew a discarded machine part and tell the kid in a serious tone, "That's a piece off of a steamboat!"
When the kid asked, "What?" The reply, "Well, it ain't on one, is it?" was always accompanied by the famous roaring Burt laugh.
They taught me quite a few things, good and bad, my mother quickly purged my vocabulary of "son of a gun" the first time I used it in her presence after hearing Uncle Joe use it a few times. I'm sure he had probably been using that milder version of the vernacular because of my presence.
"Off of a Steamboat" is a good way to describe our Representative, Democrat Jim Oberstar. "He ain't on one, is he?" He definitely doesn't live in our district and seldom visits us, regardless of the place listed as his residence. Along with the majority of the Democrats, he is AWOL when it comes to national defense and strengthening our borders. While he passes himself off as conservative on a couple of key issues, his voting record is overwhelmingly liberal.
I had a chance to sit down and talk to former Senator Rod Grams, the Republican who is challenging Jim for the seat. Rod was friendly and relaxed as we sat in the Sawmill Inn in Grand Rapids. As we talked, surrounded by historical pictures of local logging and industry, Rod was confident of his chances against the entrenched incumbent. I first asked him why he wanted to be the 8th District representative, he said that he figured he could do a better job and wasn't content to just sit on the sidelines and watch. He sees the incumbent voting with the extreme environmentalists and thinks that does great harm to the economic prospects of the district.
Rod said his first priority would be to address the logging concerns that led to the closing of the Ainsworth OSB plants by introducing legislation to make the industry more competitive, looking at some Canadian pricing and management best practices to see if they could be feasible. He is interested in solving issues facing the Duluth Port Authority and would work to make all Great Lakes shipping year around and upgrade the ports to handle container ships.
For example, (Beer Aficionados, this one's for you) one shipload of Heineken Beer contains 1,000 truckloads, currently the distribution point is far to the east, if the Upper Great Lakes Ports operated year around it could change the nationwide distribution to the country's center.
Gun control is considered an Oberstar strong point, however the NRA has taken the unprecedented move of not endorsing the incumbent, instead grading each one and giving Rod an A+ and Oberstar a B-. On the issue of abortion, Rod said he is Pro-Life and that he supports parental notification and de-funding organizations that provide abortions, he said Oberstar has not voted with the Pro-Life contingent on those two issues.
Rod would like to have a balanced budget amendment, he says our kids don't need to pay for our excesses. In times of war the balanced budget would be able to be suspended and if the nation goes to war, Rod said, "It should be balls to the wall until you win." (My Uncle Joe would have appreciated that one.)
I asked Rod about Paul Wellstone since both had served in the Senate together. He said that they used to be called "The Bookends" since they were usually on opposite ends of any issue. He liked Paul and spoke with him often, he said he always knew where Paul stood. He said that they had worked together on many things for Minnesota that were never publicized.
Rod Grams has some very good ideas and a fresh vision for the 8th District. It is time to get "off of a steamboat" and move on.
Rob Crowe chairs the Aitkin County Republicans and raises kids and cows on a farm near Hill City.
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