Rep. Ellen Tauscher Democrat Says Bush Has Shattered Bipartisan Consensus on Foreign Policy by John Shaw Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher of California is a moderate Democrat with pro-business inclinations, impressive national security credentials and a long history of working with Republicans on important issues. So you take notice when the respected lawmaker says the policies and attitudes of the Bush administration make it difficult to imagine a new bipartisan consensus on U.S. security policy re-emerging any time soon. "Many Democrats were very disappointed with how the 2000 election was resolved, but we were determined to put our bruised feelings aside and work with the new administration and try to build a sense of bipartisanship," Tauscher said in an interview in her office at the Longworth House Office Building. "But this administration hasnít been interested in that. They have made it very clear they are not interested in our ideas. They have treated us with contempt. Iím amazed at the hubris of these folks, and Iím afraid it will only get worse if President Bush is re-elected," she said. Tau scher, a senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said it is in the national interest that Democrats and Republicans, Congress and the White House, work together on security matters. But she charges that the Bush administration has made this increasingly difficult. "There has been a real degradation of truth and comity," she said. "For this administration, there is no such thing as going too far." By temperament judicious and even understated, Tauscher is angry and unforgiving about the Bush administrationís policy toward Iraq. "This is a scandal. I donít know how this administration can look itself in the mirror without cutting their throats. Itís a scandal what has happened so far in Iraq, and itís only going to get worse," she said. "There are so many pieces of this that are disturbing. If youíre hell-bent on making this look good you can. But it must be a full-time job to make yourself believe it." Tauscher argues that as a result of arrogance and ignorance the administration has made stunning mistakes in Iraq that will threaten U.S. security for decades. She said she voted in the fall of 2002 in the House to give the president authority to use force in Iraq despite some misgivings. "I did not vote to go to war. I voted to give the president a big stick so he could go and recontain Saddam Hussein in a very volatile region in a post-Sept. 11 environment," she said. "The authority we negotiated with the White House, after they tried to get a blank check, was to go back to the United Nations and create a coalition not just of the willing, but of the capable. But what happened was a complete failure to maintain the promises of the administration." She blames the administration for rushing to war with inadequate support from other nations. "We never had the case for an imminent threat, and I donít believe we should have preemptively struck," she said. Tauscher also faults the administration for failing to expect many of the problems that have occurred, some of which "could have been and were predicted." "We have miscalculated so muchóthe difficulty of occupation, the tenuousness of a country without the strong arm of Saddam Hussein, the threat of the ayatollah club from Iran moving down the street and forming an axis state like what you see between Syria and Lebanon. This is all happening." Tauscher is sharply critical of the administration for setting up two arbitrary deadlines that have done more harm that goodóformally handing over sovereignty to a transitional Iraqi government on June 30 and scheduling national elections in January 2005. "We have all this head faking going on, all this winking and nodding. We call this Iraqi government sovereign, but we know they do not really have sovereignty. They literally canít live without us. Unless the United States military is there, they canít survive," she said. "The administration still has not admitted they have a catastrophic failure on their hands," she added. "It has got worse and will get even worse. Clearly the folks who think we have a winning strategy on Iraq must be getting their news from 'Entertainment Tonight.'" Tauscher argues that the American people increasingly doubt that the substantial financial costs of the Iraq war were worth it. "I represent some of the smartest people in the world. Even the Republicans in my district know we are not on a path to success," she said. "There is a soberness coming over people. This is not a fight that many of us believed we had to make. But we are there. The repercussions of us not finishing things are bad: for the U.S., for the region, for our reputation, for our ability to prosecute the war on terroróshould we ever go back to fighting this war?" Tauscher is especially concerned that the Iraq war has deflected focus and resources from the war on terrorism. "Donít forget we still have our first piece of unfinished business called Afghanistan, which is hardly a poster child for the success of the Bush strategy," she pointed out. Tauscher said all Americans are grateful that the United States hasnít been attacked since Sept. 11, 2001, but cautioned that this is not the only way to determine if the war on terrorism is being won. "We have blessedly been without an attack in this country. I hope that continues for another 3,000 years. But to say weíre not paying the price in other ways is misleading the American people," she said. Friendly, firm and focused, Tauscher is seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party. Soon to be 53, Tauscher hails from New Jersey. She attended Seton Hall University, where she studied early childhood education. After finishing her undergraduate studies and finding it difficult to get a teaching job, Tauscher decided to pursue a career on Wall Street. At 25, she became one of the first women to hold a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and later served as an officer on the American Stock Exchange. After moving to California in 1989, she founded the ChildCare Registry, which was the first national research service to help parents verify the background of child-care workers. She later published the ChildCare Sourcebook to help working parents make sound decisions regarding the care of their children. Tauscher became active in California politics in the early 1990s, helping Dianne Feinstein win a Senate race in 1992 and then secure re-election in 1994. Feinstein and other Democrats urged Tauscher to run for Congress in 1996, and she was elected the representative to Californiaís 10th congressional district, which is east of San Francisco and includes eastern Alameda County and most of Contra Costa County. Tauscher is the only member of Congress who has two national defense laboratories in her districtóthe Lawrence Livermore and Sandia California national labs. Both conduct defense-related research. An economic moderate who supported Bushís $1.35 trillion tax cut in 2001, Tauscher is a liberal on most social issues. She favors abortion rights, environmental protections, federal arts funding and a vigorous federal role in funding education. Tauscher was elected in 2001 as vice chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, an organization of moderate Democrats. She sits on the House Transportation and Armed Services committees, the latter of which she is the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee that oversees the National Nuclear Security Administration. Tauscher is widely seen as a congressional expert on nonproliferation issues, with a special expertise regarding nuclear weapons. She is a sharp critic of the Bush administrationís nuclear policy, arguing that the Bush administrationís main policy legacy will be the 2001 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) that has guided all nuclear policy. "Itís a stunning document. Itís basically a naked effort to restore nuclear weapons to prominence. Itís based on the questionable premise that the U.S.ís enemies canít be deterred by the existing mix of conventional and nuclear weapons," Tauscher said. She argues the NPR makes a number of assumptions that are hard to reconcile with an understanding of todayís threats. The document continues to require a large nuclear arsenal, reinvigorates the U.S. nuclear testing and production infrastructure, takes the initial steps to develop the next generation of nuclear weapons, and blurs the line between the traditional deterrence function of nuclear weapons and their potential offensive uses against threats. "The nuclear deterrent necessary to protect the U.S. and guarantee our treaty commitments is much smaller than the one postulated in the NPR," she said. Tauscher does credit the Bush administration for engaging in serious nuclear talks with Russia and notes that the Moscow Treaty pledges the United States to reduce its operationally deployed stockpile to between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads. But she calls the reduction, although positive, "woefully inadequate," and says that far more substantial reductions in the U.S. and Russian arsenals are appropriate. Tauscher is very concerned that North Korea continues to work on its nuclear program and that India and Pakistan, the origin of one of the largest black markets in nuclear technology, have both refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. She believes the administration should be much more forceful with Pakistan in particular. "You cannot fight proliferation if you effectively sanction, invade or otherwise penalize would-be nuclear powers and turn a blind eye to the purveyor of the largest black market in nuclear material." Tauscher said the United States must take a more vigorous leadership role in these issues and offer a detailed agenda. First, the United States should create a special high-level office to coordinate the nationís various nonproliferation programs that are run by the State, Defense and Energy departments. Second, the administration should conduct a new Nuclear Posture Review that takes a hard look at the role of nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal and the size of the infrastructure needed to support them. The review should consider a new relationship with Russia and also the ability of conventional, rather than nuclear weapons, to deter threats. Third, the United States should engage in serious and creative diplomacy to strengthen the Non-Proliferation Treaty so that it is a more effective instrument. Fourth, the United States should work hard to ensure that the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty becomes a reality to help prevent the production of more fissile material that could find its way into terrorist hands. Additionally, the United States, while taking steps to crack down on Pakistanís nuclear black market, should also deal with the many nations with "breakout potential," including Germany, Japan, Belgium, Brazil and others that understand nuclear power and could quickly make nuclear weapons. Finally, the United States should play a key role in halting the emergence of more weapons states and the proliferation of nuclear materials. Tauscherís nuclear agenda is an aggressive one, and some analysts believe that if Sen. John Kerry is elected president, she is in line to become either the secretary of energy or a high-level Defense Department official. John Shaw is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.