politics

At a time when Congress remains bitterly divided along partisan lines, with congressional Democrats at loggerheads with President Bush, talk of bipartisanship and comity in Washington, D.C., might seem hopelessly -- and naively -- out of step with the times.

Rep. Jim Ramstad doesn't buy it.

The nine-term incumbent from suburban Hennepin County, long a maverick, moderate voice in the Republican Party, offered a ringing endorsement Tuesday of trying to work across the aisle in Congress.

"My message for the Congress and the president is you have to work together in a bipartisan and pragmatic way," he said during a midday speech at the Humphrey Institute's Center for the Study of Politics and Governance. "You must govern from the center whenever possible ... Change the tone in Washington to get rid of the excess partisanship and vitriol."

Ramstad is the most recent member of the state's congressional delegation to take part in the lecture series; his speech was billed as "Life as Centrist in the New Congress."

He told about members of the new Democratic majority calling him the day after last November's election, and he ticked off no fewer than a dozen bills on which he has joined with Democrats as the lead Republican co-sponsor.

"Bipartisanship does happen in Congress," he said, referring to the I-35W bridge collapse, when "partisanship screeched to a halt" to forge a legislative solution after the disaster, much as happened in the days following 9/11.

Ramstad was first elected in 1990, "as a moderate, with my eyes wide open." In the years since, his party has steadily tacked to the right, leaving him isolated at times. "I've not found myself in a leadership position," he said.

And, he said, other members of Congress sometimes display "a certain reluctance, hesitancy ... to talk about partisanship because they don't want to alienate the base."

Bob von Sternberg • 612-673-7184 • vonste@startribune.com