Monday, Jan. 31, 2000 -- ST. PAUL, MN (AmpolNS)

Dear Senator Wellstone,

Can we talk?

We've got this problem here. Rather, you have the problem.

It's a perception problem, Senator. You mistakenly perceive Bill Bradley to be a progressive of some sort, when he's not.

Let's look at how he deals with health care, for starters.

Senator Wellstone, your health-care proposal is the best there is. It's a wonderful plan. It takes the Greed Principle out of the mix and guarantees that all Americans will have access to health care. Bradley's plan, on the other hand, is set up for the benefit of those insurance companies that have given him all that wonderful money over the years. It may feature the words "universal access", but that's not what would result were it to be implemented. If you'd take the time to sit down and read his plan, you'd realize this.

There's also the matter of free trade. Since time immemorial, conservatives have been for unfettered free trade, while liberals and progressives want provisions and protections made for labor and the environment.

As both the Los Angeles Times and the UK business magazine The Economist have stated, Bill Bradley favors totally unfettered free trade, while Bill Clinton and Al Gore -- especially Al Gore -- both want labor and environmental provisions in any free-trade agreements signed by the United States of America.

Here's another danger signal: Jack Kemp.

You know Mr. Kemp, I presume. He was the man who helped shove supply-side economics, better known as "Reaganomics". Reaganomics gave the country sky-high deficits that benefited the wealthy, the banks collecting interest on those deficits, and the defense contractors who sold all manner of unneeded and expensive war materiel to the Pentagon. Everyone else got screwed big-time, and it took Bill Clinton to set things right.

Jack Kemp is Bill Bradley's chief economic advisor, and has been for years.

Why else did Bradley vote for Reaganomics back in the 1980's? And why else would Bradley, to this day, refuse to admit that voting for Reaganomics was a horrible mistake on his part?

We've got three strikes so far against Bill Bradley's allegedly progressive Democrat image. But in case you need some more, consider this:

Pat Moynihan is another one of Bradley's advisors. Moynihan is known for his neo-traditional conservative stances on family issues, and was the only Democrat to serve in Richard Nixon's cabinet. And Nixon, if you remember, was as conservative as they come.

Let's not forget Bradley's good friend Robert Kerrey of Nebraska. The soon-to-be-former Senator Kerrey is even less of a true progressive Democrat than Bill Bradley. He is much more friendly to the GOP, so much so that Paul Gigot, the conservative political commentator on PBS' Jim Lehrer Newshour, admitted that Kerrey's retirement hurts the Senate Republicans more than it does the Senate Democrats, because Kerrey was always fighting his party's establishment on various issues. (An old Harry S. Truman quote comes to mind: "Whenever I hear a man say that he's 'bi-partisan', I know he's going to vote against me." That old Democratic warhorse Harry S. had no time for such foolishness, because he knew how it would be exploited by the enemies of progressive politics.)

Senator Wellstone, you have expressed your disdain several times for President Clinton's compromises to the conservative GOP Congress. How can you condemn Bill Clinton for these, and then support Bradley, when Bill Bradley's whole career is based on carrying water for the Republicans?

And let's not forget who's giving Bradley all that campaign money: Republicans.

The Republican Party has Jack Kemp and his cronies use Bill Bradley to beat up Al Gore. That's why so many of them are donating to Bradley's campaign: that, and they like his stances on free trade, health care and supply-side economics. (Ever notice that, in both Congress and in the media, all of the conservatives' invective is saved for Al Gore, while most of them have nothing but nice things to say about Bill Bradley?)

Is it any wonder that Al Gore, in the most recent Democratic debate, asked Bill Bradley why, with a voting record that embraces Ronald Reagan, Bradley is casting himself as Robert F. Kennedy?

Senator, please. It's not too late. As a woman who has twice voted for you, I ask you:

Get off the Bradley train before it crashes, and takes your reputation as a progressive and a smart guy along with it.

Sincerely,

Tamara Baker