Dean M. Barkley is mad as hell and won’t take it anymore.

Just ask him.

“It’s a joke,” Barkley said. “Congress is a joke.

“They go to Washington and promise us they will make changes to the system,” he said. “Then, what do they do? Nothing.

“We need to freeze or put a cap on federal spending,” he said. “We have to stop the spending, stop the bleeding,” he said. “If we don’t the kind of debt we will be leaving our children and grandchildren amounts to financial child abuse.”

That’s the former U.S. Senator speaking about the number one issue in this election year. An issue that Barkley wanted to address at the FarmFest candidates forum Tuesday.

“I think what I had to say at FarmFest was received very, very well,” Barkley said. “That is when I got a chance to speak. The audience was packed with Republicans who applauded everything (Sen. Norm) Coleman said.

“The two candidates, Coleman and (Al) Franken, spent most of their time throwing barbs at each other,” he said. “If this were school, I would have gotten hit by their spit balls aimed at each other.”

Barkley made a campaign swing through southern Minnesota Thursday, visiting with the media at Albert Lea and Rochester as well as Austin.

He served as a member of the U.S. Senate, representing Minnesota from Nov. 4, 2002 to Jan. 3, 2003.

He was appointed to the position by then-Gov. Jesse Ventura after the tragic death of Sen. Paul Wellstone in a plane crash.

Like Ventura, Barkley was a member of the Independence Party.

Until Wellstone’s death, Barkley was a footnote in politics.

This election year, he hopes to break from the ranks of “also-ran” and emerge the winner.

It will be an uphill battle, but Barkley maintains his time has come and his message should be heard.

First of all, there’s the two-party system, which, Barkley said, has seen its time come and go. “Eighty-five percent of Americans polled don’t like a two-party system,” he said.

They are “fed up,” he said, with Congress making promises and failing to deliver on them.

“Our whole government was founded on the principle that we should be able to fix the problem,” he said. “Our forefathers had the desire to do that, but we’ve lost that today.

“Today, they believe like Ben Franklin warned us by doing the same thing over and over they still expect a different solution,” he said. “It doesn’t work that way, but that’s what Congress keeps doing.”

Although it was only eight weeks, Barkley said his Senate experience counts for something.

“All I am saying is give me a shot. Consider the competition and then think about me as an option if you’re fed up,” he said.