In a Congress of extremes, America is going to need a few bridge-builders. One of them should be Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn.
He deserves (and likely will win) re-election.
Peterson has a rare talent in politics: He makes it look easy. Year after year and term after term, he casts tough votes on difficult issues, but keeps the solid support he has earned among both Democrats and Republicans in his district.
And it's more than just reading the polls. It's reading the tea leaves, too -- more instinct than political accounting. That's where Peterson excels, for he knows just how far a Democrat can go in his Republican-leaning district.
Case in point: Two of the biggest issues of the recent congressional session, health care reform and cap-and-trade. Peterson bargained hard on cap-and-trade and ultimately supported it. Later, he voted no on health care reform.
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For embattled Democrats, that proved to be the right recipe this year: Support for health care reform turned out to be the deal-breaker with conservative voters. In contrast, Peterson's cap-and-trade support draws only mild grumbling.
Such choices matter. Just ask Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., who voted the other way on both issues, opposing cap-and-trade but supporting health care reform.
Today, Pomeroy's trailing or even in a hugely competitive race.
Peterson, polls suggest, is comfortably ahead.
Here's another example: "More than half the members of the Blue Dog Coalition -- the organization of moderate to conservative Democrats in the House -- are in peril in next week's election, a stark indicator of how the balloting could produce a Congress even more polarized than the current one," The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The reason is that "Blue Dogs tend to come from more conservative swing districts, where their hold on their seats is more tenuous in any case, and where voters are more likely to move right when the national winds push strongly in that direction."
But Peterson not only is a Blue Dog Democrat, he co-founded the group back in the 1990s. He also hails from a conservative swing district that's likely trending right.
Why is he succeeding where other moderates are failing?
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Like we said: He makes it look easy.
As the Journal suggests, the House soon will have lots of members on the far left and even more on the far right. It'll have precious few in the middle.
But the middle is where successful legislation is made. That's where legislation wins not just partisan but bipartisan support, the kind of support health care reform lacked -- and that's a weakness that might yet prove fatal.
Peterson's comfortable in the center, a vital but increasingly lonely place. After Tuesday, he'll be needed there more than ever. Our nation as well as his district would benefit from his re-election.
-- Tom Dennis for the Herald
Endorsements represent the views of Forum Communications, the Herald's parent company. The endorsement above was written by Herald editorial page editor Tom Dennis.
