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For Sanders, a new pulpit for populist message

By Ross Sneyd, AP Political Writer | November 7, 2006

 

MONTPELIER, Vt. --Bernie Sanders sees himself as a modern-day Robin Hood,

fighting corporate excess and standing up for the less fortunate.

 

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Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts Now, the left-leaning

Vermont congressman will take his populist preaching to the U.S. Senate after

overwhelming Republican newcomer Richard Tarrant on Tuesday.

 

" Those people need a voice in Washington. They need someone to fight for them.

And I intend to do that, " Sanders said.

 

Sanders, 65, served eight terms in the House of Representatives before deciding

to run for the seat being vacated by retiring U.S. Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt. It

was Jeffords who defected from the Republicans in 2001 and briefly gave the

Democrats control of the Senate. Sanders doesn't have to defect; he's already an

independent, and proud of it.

 

Speaking to a roomful of supporters Tuesday night, he didn't sound like a man

ready to tone down his rhetoric.

 

" The time is long overdue for the United States Senate and House to start

representing the working families of America and not just the rich and the

powerful. The time is long overdue to end the national disgrace of childhood

poverty while we give hundreds of billions in tax breaks to people who don't

need it, " he said.

 

" And the time is long overdue for the United States of America to join the rest

of the industrial world and provide health care to every many woman and child as

a right of citizenship, " he said.

 

Once a pariah in Vermont political circles for his disdain of the two major

parties, Sanders has since evolved into a kind of folk hero. Even U.S. Sen.

Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., whose party Sanders has refused to join, has embraced the

former Burlington mayor.

 

" If you really want to shake up this administration, send Bernie Sanders to

Washington, " Leahy said at a rally late in the campaign. " I can't wait to hear

Bernie's `Vermont accent' on the Senate floor. "

 

Sanders -- rumpled, tieless, with unruly hair and a voice that always seems to

be at full volume -- used to be dismissed as a caricature. But he was elected

mayor of Burlington in 1981, starting a career that took him to four terms as

mayor and eight terms in the U.S. House.

 

Along the way, he built a reputation as a tenacious campaigner who attended

closely to constituent services between election seasons. As a party of one in a

House that functions through a tightly structured party system, he was forced to

caucus with the Democrats from his earliest days in Washington.

 

But even with that he has charted his own course. There are few pieces of

legislation that can be attributed specifically to Sanders. He argues, though,

that his strength is in forming coalitions and pushing through amendments to

improve bills or at least to make them more palatable. Early on in his House

career, he organized the Progressive Caucus of like-minded liberal thinkers that

now numbers several dozen lawmakers.

 

Among the issues that Sanders has worked on over the years have been the price

of prescription drugs -- he led the first bus tour of senior citizens to Canada

to buy drugs at a discounted price -- veterans' benefits, Social Security, the

minimum wage and dairy pricing.

 

But it's less the specific issues that Sanders has worked on that rallies his

supporters as it is the way he stands up to those in power, whether in

Washington committee rooms or corporate boardrooms.

 

" People like Bernie, " summed up Ralph Montefusco, 56, of Burlington, a longtime

labor activist and Sanders supporter.

 

Barbara Van Raalte, 74, of Burlington, said Sanders' take-no-prisoners style

drew her to him years ago and she'll never leave his side.

 

" I'm a big Bernie supporter, " she said outside a recent rally in Burlington,

Sanders' campaign stickers on her coat and a Sanders' campaign sign under her

arm for a friend. " I've always supported Bernie. "

 

 

Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always

glorify the hunter