The importance of being Hansen

Having dinner with Hansen Clarke, the freshman congressman from the east side of Detroit, is somewhat of a unique experience.

For one thing, you have to keep reminding him to eat. Clarke is so boyishly enthusiastic about what he is doing, and filled with so many ideas, that he forgets about the food in front of him.

Choi Palms-Cohen, his stunning Korean-American wife, sighs that he is much the same about sleep. Yes, he has a hotel room in Washington, but he's been known to sleep in the office.

He is full of ideas — surprisingly fresh, new and intriguing ideas — and full of energy. "Not because I'm in Congress. I probably shouldn't say this, but I'm not in love with being a congressman. I'm in love with the chance to do something for people."

Last year, Clarke, a term-limited state senator, took on Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick, mother of the convicted criminal also known as Detroit's former mayor, and beat her in a hard-fought primary. What was most interesting was that Clarke didn't run by bashing the former mayor. He never even mentioned Kwame Kilpatrick's name. He thinks he won for some of the same reasons other people voted for Tea Party candidates last fall: They wanted something new. They were tired of politicians doing business as usual.

And Hansen Clarke certainly isn't "as usual." Nor have the trappings of power gone to his head. When CCK represented the east side of Detroit in Congress, she leased, at taxpayer expense, an expensive Chevy Tahoe to tool around in when she was home.

Never mind that she represented one of the smallest and most impoverished districts in the nation. Clarke rented instead a wheelchair-equipped van, and put it at the disposal of the district's seniors. Home on weekends, he drives his own aging Ford Taurus.

Congress has been an education. After he won the election last fall, some members of his state staff expressed interest in working for him in Washington. "I told them, you guys are great, but they tell me I need experienced Washington staffers."

What he found out, however, is that "what experienced staffers mostly know how to do is tell you why you shouldn't do something and why you can't do something," he said, laughing.

That was the case last month, when the freshman congressman noticed that the new Homeland Security budget was going to forbid the government from providing any new funds for Detroit.

That was crazy. Not only is Detroit on an international border, but it is also the nation's most economically important border crossing. But the administration was going to forbid the Department of Homeland Security from giving any money to any but the 10 biggest cities.

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