[Updated: on healthcare]

In my third (and final if nobody else announces) interview of the DFL candidates for the MN-03 seat being vacated by Jim Ramstad, I met with Ashwin Madia on Saturday morning just as the snow was beginning to fall. He is a driven man. He is compelled to run for Congress because someone needs to stand up for our constitution, someone needs to stand up for our troops and bring them home, someone needs to inject real patriotism back into politics, someone needs to stand up for our civil rights and someone needs to push hard to address global warming. For those of you who fear that too many Democrats are afraid to make waves, afraid to stand up for what's right, Ashwin is your candidate.

Ashwin is a first generation American. He graduated from Osseo High School in 1995, the University of Minnesota with a degree in political science in 1999, New York University Law School in 2002 and then practiced briefly with Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi before reporting for basic training in 2003. Ashwin enlisted with the Marines during undergrad. In October of 2003, he was assigned to Okinawa, Japan. From September of 2005 until March of 2006 he was stationed in Baghdad and then Basra.

His job in Iraq was to coordinate the many organizations that are were working to establish the rule of law. From the US military to the US State Department to UN organizations to NGOs, many groups were working on many different aspects of
setting up a judicial system. He worked on things like the process of what happens when someone gets arrested. Under Saddam Hussein, arrestees were just stacked in cells until they were either killed, died, or released. It was completely arbitrary and at the whim of those who ran the system. How were those arrested going to be assigned attorneys? How would trials proceed? He worked long hours to establish respect for the rule of law. He worked long hours on things that we Americans take for granted.

He worked on all these things under a dark cloud. The US tortured prisoners at Abu Ghraib and other locations. The US holds prisoners indefinitely without trial. The US does not allow these prisoners to challenge their detention -- many may be innocent. When the US does allow the prisoners to have attorneys, they frequently hinder the ability of these attorneys by claiming that the vast majority of the evidence against the prisoners must remain a state secret.

"As I gave lectures to judges in Baghdad on many aspects of the law, the thought kept running through my mind what example are we setting?" he related. As you can imagine, he's rather indignant over all this. "Who are we to tell someone how they ought to be running their judicial system when we're doing such horrible things ourselves?"

"I romanticized it, I guess," Ashwin replied to my question of why he went to law school and became a lawyer. "I imagined getting up in front of juries and arguing cases. We have great ideals. For example, everybody no matter what gets their day in court."

"In the Marines, I was a defender," he said. "I won a case that was pretty unique. I'm one of the few if not the only attorney to have successfully defended a Marine against Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

"The military does periodic sweeps of the computers soldiers use looking for many things including porn. This particular sweep busted two Marines. One for your typical Playboy type stuff. The other for hardcore gay porn."

"The Playboy Marine gets the standard slap on the wrists and continues to serve. But the Battalion Commander throws the book at this gay Marine who's still in the closet. He was busted down a rank and a pay grade plus he was administratively separated from his comrades for commission of a serious offense. The Battalion Commander was pursuing an Other Than Honorable (OTH) discharge. The significance is the Marine would this on his job resume forever. He'd have to explain why he had an OTH on his resume. Furthermore, he'd lose all benefits."
[Comment from Ashwin: Remember that the Marine wasn't administratively separate, the Commander was trying to administratively separate him.]

"Next the Battalion Commander wanted to fill the courtroom with his fellow marines in his platoon," Ashwin explained. "So that they'd see all the graphic gay porn the Marine had looked at. I argued that this would lead to his persecution by his fellow Marines. The panel agreed and cleared the courtroom. However, the Battalion Commander went to a General and the General overruled the panel and the courtroom would be filled."

"So in court I compared the two Marines. One was slapped on the wrist, the other was getting an OTH for the same offense, the only difference being the gay porn. Furthermore, I argued that the Battalion Commander had ignored all of the rules
regarding Don't Ask, Don't Tell and was arbitrarily throwing the book at this Marine. I completely slaughtered the Battalion Commander on cross-examination. Then I brought forward a bunch of witnesses who testified what great work this gay Marine was doing. The panel ruled for him and he's still serving today."
[Comment from Ashwin: I wouldn't say I slaughtered the BC - Let's put it this way: I drew a lot of attention to the discrepancies in the BC's decisions.]

"I've kept in touch with him," Ashwin continued. "I was wondering if how his fellow Marine's were treating him. He told me that nobody cares. My supervisor told me that this is a generational thing. The younger generation just doesn't care about sexual orientation like older generations. I figure that if the Marine Corps has progressed this far, why not the entire military.

Ashwin wants to scrap Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

After that little story, let's get on to the issues.

Iraq

"Iraq is a beautiful country," he told me. "I saw some of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen there. The judges and the other people I met are incredibly brave. It's also a very wealthy country sitting on top of all that oil."

"We need to get out of there. We were lied into the war and its distracting us from pursuing the real terrorists. We had no plan going in and the Bush Administration is responsible for this disaster."
[Comment from Ashwin: I don't remember saying that. We need to reduce our presence in Iraq quickly and responsibly. This war has distracted us from pursuing the real terrorists. We had no plan for winning the peace going in and the Bush Administration is responsible for this disaster.]

"We need to get past our strong emotions and our disgust surrounding this war and consider what is logistically possible. We cannot abandon our equipment or endanger our troops as we pull out and redeploy. Furthermore, we cannot abandon the Iraqis. This needs to be solved diplomatically."

Tax policy and patriotism

You may think that patriotism and tax policy have nothing in common, but our conversation about tax policy led to patriotism. In an ideal situation, Ashwin would like to see the lowest possible taxes for everyone. However, (and that's a big however) he pointed out that we are waging two wars, we're in the middle of a health care crisis, we have to address global warming or else, we are facing the "largest deficit in the history of the universe" and this is absolutely the wrong time to cut taxes for the richest who need it the least.

"Why can't we ask the richest 2% to sacrifice for this war?" he asked rhetorically. The sacrifices are disproportionately on the shoulders of the troops and their families. "Everyone else is told to not worry, go shopping. Patriotism is not putting a yellow bumper sticker on your car. Patriotism is sacrificing for your country." What he calls Patriotism Lite just galls him. He wants to see American do great things like build the green economy and export it, solve the health care crisis, pay down the deficit and stand on our ideals not abandon them.

If winning our war on terrorism is so important, if solving our health care crisis is so important, if addressing global warming is critical to our survival on our planet, he believes that we must be patriotic and make sacrifices for the sake of our country. He believes that our tax policy should affect the richest 2% as it affects the rest of us, we should all pay our share.

Transportation & global warming

When we got to talking about transportation, everything he said also pertained to global warming. He sees these issues as conjoined. He wants a comprehensive energy policy to reduce our dependence on fossil and foreign fuel. He believes we have 2-3 years to act. "I'm not a scientist," he said. "But all of the credible scientists say we have to act now. They're reporting that our worst case scenarios are coming true."

"If we build more public transit, there is so much money to be made building the infrastructure. They'll be good union jobs. We can either manufacture the green technology and hardware here or stand by the wayside and import it. Some people say that the changing to a green economy will cost jobs. It's like how automobiles endangered the horse and buggy industry. We need to adjust."
[Comment from Ashwin: That's like saying that automobiles endangered the horse and buggy industry. When you're growing, innovating and leading, you'll never endanger the economy.]

He wants government grants to encourage the development and manufacture of wind power, solar power, bio-fuels, etc. He believes there is no "downside" to developing a green economy and putting Minnesota in the forefront of it.

FISA, our constitution, our civil rights and torture

He believes strongly that no branch of government should have unchecked and unfettered power. "Our whole government is based on checks and balances," he said. This is where Ashwin and his law background will come into the fore if he's elected. In our conversation, it was clear that he will not flinch. He will not cave in on our civil rights or capitulate in abandoning our constitution as so many in our current Congress have done.

He believes that America must live by our ideals. "Our ideals make us the great country that we are."

On FISA, he believes that another set of eyes outside of the executive branch needs to review the wiretapping of Americans. "All the Bush Administration needs to do is get a warrant 72 hours after they've wiretapped in exigent circumstances," he stated. "This is not a difficult burden to meet and it doesn't hinder national security." He firmly believes we need to protect an individuals right to privacy.

On the Military Commission Act he believes we need a process to determine which of the detainees really belong in Guantanamo. He thinks its ridiculous that only one branch, the Executive branch, oversees absolutely every aspect of review. He once again wants another branch, another set of eyes involved.

"We have lost the high ground," he explains. He thinks its simply disgusting that Americans are parsing words over torture. "So many other countries have stopped respecting us as a result of torturing. We need to lead through our ideals not by our size and strength."

Home foreclosure crisis

First Ashwin thinks we need to prevent as many foreclosures as possible. He would like to see a fund created. The fund would examine each homeowners situation on a case by case basis and offer assistance. I asked about a rate freeze for at-risk homeowners or changing their rates to a reasonable fixed rate. He said be open to whatever solution would protect the most homeowners.

Finally, he'd like to see a rating system to help homeowners judge the relative safety of a financial offer.

Choice

Ashwin is pro-choice. He would like to see more age-appropriate sex education and access to contraception. He would also like to emphasize male responsibility.

Gay marriage

He thinks we're going to be embarrassed in 20 years that we would deny this right to gay and lesbian couples much as we're embarrassed about so many other forms of discrimination we've overcome. "To focus on and try to hurt two people in love seems to me to be an odd fixation in an age where we're faced with a bloody war in Iraq, global warming, a health care crisis and a $9 trillion debt," he stated.

Health care crisis

I apologize for forgetting to ask about health care and his stance on single payer. I've asked via email and will update. Here's his stance from his website:

We are losing ground on health insurance coverage and those with insurance are seeing its costs skyrocket at rates that outpace their paychecks. Going forward, we can achieve universal coverage only if we take steps to make health insurance affordable and accessible for everyone. Minnesotans know the tremendous power of innovation at research hospitals like the Mayo Clinic. Doctors at Mayo have found that alternative billing practices and the expansion of preventative and primary care can lower health care costs by as much as 10 percent. Such policies would save as much as $200 billion dollars nationwide across all payers - easily enough money to afford extending universal coverage to the uninsured.
(Madia for Congress)

[Update]

Ashwin got back to me on single-payer health insurance:

I think we need fundamental reform of our health care system to make health care more affordable. The proposal I support has been put forth by the Mayo Clinic, which says that insurance companies should be paid when people receive treatment, not a flat fee every month. This will take incentives away from insurance companies to have gaps in their coverage and instead give them incentives to get people frequent preventive and primary care. This care could save money in the long run in terms of costs expended for catastrophic illness. The Mayo Clinic estimates that, in combination with electronic billing, the plan would save $200 billion annually in health care costs - more than enough to ensure every uninsured person in the States and to pay costs for catastrophic illnesses when they do arise.

In terms of single payer, I'm not opposed to it but I want to study it more. The only compelling argument that I've heard against it is that it would work well under a competent president like Clinton, who appointed competent people to run it. However, someone like Bush, who has ravaged almost every federal dep't he has touched, would almost surely appoint an incompetent to run it. I'm uncomfortable entrusting the nation's health care to someone like that.

[End Update]

Miscellaneous

He has been endorsed by Vote Vets.

I asked if he'd ever talked with Mike Ciresi about running for the MN-03 seat. He said he hadn't.

He practices intellectual property law at Ciresi's firm though he is now on leave and campaigning 100%.

He's got a brother who's an almost dead-ringer for him.

He announced on 10/23/07 and he promised that people would be surprised how much he will be able to raise by the end of the 4th quarter.

I asked about Sen. Satveer Chaudry (DFL-Fridley), Minnesota's first legislator of Indian descent. "He's been away with Governor Pawlenty on the trade mission to India and I haven't been able to connect with him. We talked briefly just before he left, though."