UPDATE: The SCHIP OVERIDE.. WILL IT HAPPEN? AS EXPECTED, IT FAILED! With Stark Memories
The New York Times leads with:
Supporters of a bill to provide health insurance for 10 million children failed this afternoon, as expected, to muster enough support in the House to override President Bush’s veto
WaPo:
A furious campaign to persuade Republicans to change their votes on the $35 billion expansion of the government children’s health insurance program fell 13 votes short today when the House failed to overturn President Bush’s veto of the legislation.
More at memeorandum
Robert mentioned Stark and I wanted to add this exerpt from Michelle as seen at memeorandum:
here’s a trip down memory lane from 2003. As I noted in my column back then, Democrats have given Stark a pass before. They’ll give him a pass again:
Rep. Fortney “Pete” Stark (D-Calif.) is the foul-mouthed poster boy for Liberal Double Standards.
There he was on Capitol Hill last week, sounding more like Eminem than an eminent lawmaker, hurling epithets such as “fruitcake” and “c–ks”-r” at Republicans during a mark-up session on pension funds legislation of all things.
Most of the mainstream media coverage of the fracas has focused on the handling of the meeting by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas , who is accused by Democrats of summoning Capitol Hill police to the scene in order to prevent them from meeting in a committee library to discuss procedural objections.
But while Beltway types squabble about whether Thomas was technically out of order, Stark’s blatantly thuggish behavior has once again gotten a pass from the establishment Left.
According to an official committee transcript, Stark physically taunted fellow Ways and Means Committee member Scott McInnis (R-Colorado) while Thomas attempted to hold a voice vote on the bill at hand. In response to McInnis’ demand that Thomas be quiet while the bill was being read, Stark blurted out: “[O]h, you think you are big enough to make me, you little wimp? Come on. Come over here and make me. I dare you.”
Further goading McInnis, a married Republican gentleman, Stark lashed out: “You little fruitcake. You little fruitcake. I said you are a fruitcake.” According to Fox News Channel, witnesses say Stark then hurled a 10-letter homophobic insult at Thomas better suited for an anti-gay rap records than the Congressional Record. Stark’s press office refused to answer my questions on the record about these remarks:
:The silence over Stark is no surprise. Liberals have long looked the other way at Stark’s bigoted boorishness over the course of his three decades in public office. In 1995, when he called Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-Connecticut) a “whore” for the insurance industry and suggested that her knowledge of health care came solely from “pillow talk” with her physician husband, not a single Democrat objected. Not a single of the proud feminists on Capitol Hill signed a letter, supported by 35 Republican House members, demanding that Stark apologize.
Nor did the Congressional Black Caucus emit a peep when Stark lambasted former Bush I Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan, an accomplished doctor and medical researcher, as “a disgrace to his race and his profession” because he opposed Stark’s socialist health care schemes. “I guess I should feel ashamed because Congressman Stark thinks I am not a ‘good Negro,”‘ Sullivan observed after the 1990 incident. “As a Cabinet member who has spent almost four decades of my life dedicated to healing, : (I) am unable to express my own views without being subject to race-based criticism by those who are not ready to accept independent thinking by a black man.”
Then there was the time Stark attacked former conservative California state welfare director Eloise Anderson in 1999 as a baby-killer, complaining at a public forum that she would “kill children if she had her way” simply because she opposed cradle-to-grave government welfare entitlements. Not a single, finger-wagging editorial from the media elite about the need for decorum and decent behavior in public debate appeared in either the California or national op-ed pages.
The lesson couldn’t be more stark: Only the self-anointed preachers of tolerance and civility on the Left can have their fruitcake and eat it, too.
And remember this? I recounted this story, first reported by KSFO and Joel Mowbray, in Unhinged:
When Daniel Dow returned home Thursday evening, he noticed he had a voice mail message. To his great surprise, it was left by his Congressman, Pete Stark (D-CA), in response to a fax he had sent in an hour earlier.
But to Dow’s even greater surprise, the message was a smarmy smear, one in which Congressman Stark essentially called him stupid and implied that the enlisted man, who had just returned from Kosovo, did not care about enlisted men and women.
And now compounding the Congressman’s callousness, he has released an “apology” distinctly lacking anything resembling an apology.
Here’s a brief recap of the events:
- Thursday evening, the House voted on one of its typical resolutions supporting the troops in Iraq, but also condemning the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and calling for a full investigation.
- 16-term San Francisco liberal Pete “Fortney” Stark was one of 50 Congressmen to oppose the non-controversial resolution.
- Daniel Dow wrote an intelligent, though strongly worded letter expressing his outrage and faxed it to Rep. Stark’s office at 4:30pm PST.
- Dow stepped out for some errands, and upon returning home, he listened to his voice mail.
Thankfully, Dow thought on his feet and provided the recording to San Francisco-based talk radio station KSFO. The story caught fire, and by midday Friday, even Rush Limbaugh was talking about it.
Listening to the choice language Stark used, it’s easy to see why. He started out his 53-second message telling Dow, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Stark then informs the enlisted man, “So if you care about enlisted people, you wouldn’t have voted for that thing, either.”
Perhaps such “stark” language might be acceptable responding to a blowhard or an ad hominem attack, but then again, no Congressman would ever waste his time calling such a constituent. (As a practical matter, calls from Congressmen are extremely rare, and Stark is Exhibit A as to why.)
But Dow’s letter, though unequivocal in its criticism, was eloquent, passionate, and intelligent. It might have savaged Stark’s nutty “no” vote on the resolution, but there was not a single personal attack.
If only the Congressman could say the same.
Stark stooped to name-calling, chastising his constituent as an idiot: “Probably somebody put you up to this, and I’m not sure who it was, but I doubt if you could spell half the words in the letter and somebody wrote it for you. So I don’t pay too much attention to it.”
Near the middle of his rambling message, the Congressman promised Dow, “But I’ll call you back later.” Why? Stark explained, “[To] let you tell me why you think you’re such a great, god-damned hero.” (Stark did not call back.)
And now this:
“I yield myself two minutes. Madam speaker, I, first of all, I’m just amazed that they can’t figure out ” the Republicans are worried that they can’t pay for insuring an additional 10 million children. They sure don’t care about finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war in Iraq. Where are you going to get that money? Are you going to tell us lies like you’re telling us today? Is that how you’re going to fund the war? You don’t have money to fund the war on children. But you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people if he can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President’s amusement.”
Don’t question his patriotism. Question his sanity.
Update 11:26am Eastern. On the floor now:GOP Rep. Heather Wilson, who supports the entitlement expansion and is now one of the Dems’ favorite Republicans. New Mexico conservatives aren’t cheering.
Update 11:17am Eastern. Rep. Pete Stark starts blabbering about Republicans who don’t want to spend money on children, but instead want to spend it on “an illegal war” to be fought by children whom Republicans want to send to Iraq to “blow people up” and “get their heads blown up” for “his amusement.”
Stark: “Bush just likes to blow things up!!!”
Stark is reminded by his Democrat colleague “not to refer to the president in any personal way.” Fling those peas.
GOP Rep. Brady lambastes Rep. Stark. The man is a raving lunatic.
Dan Riehl wonders why the GOP didn’t fight back harder and smarter.
Update 11:14am Eastern. What does S-CHIP stand for? Rep. Steve King spells it out:
Update 10:58am Eastern. Here we go. Debate begins on HR 976. Rep. John Dingell insists the “bill is paid for.”
What’s he smoking?
Update 10:51am Eastern. Newly-elected Democrat Rep. Niki Tsongas has just been sworn in and she’s exulting in being there to cast her override vote on the S-CHIP expansion. Her husband, you may have forgotten, was one of the most outspoken critics of the entitlement crisis and gave out “Pander Bears” to politicians who refused to be honest about the looming fiscal disaster of the expanding social welfare state.
Those were the days.
Update 10:16am Eastern. House members are giving 1-minute speeches, which can be summed up thusly:
Bush hates children!No, he doesn’t!
Head-counting taking place right now. Looks like the vote will take place around 12:30pm Eastern.
***
The House is in session now. I’ll be liveblogging the upcoming S-CHIP debate. You can watch the stream at C-Span’s website.
More coverage at memeorandum
Captain’s Quarters has more liveblogging coverage
October 18, 2007 - 10:57 AM on October 18th, 2007
Fortney “Pete” Stark is an A1 A-hole, besides being mentally ill. This bunghole should be in a straight jacket.
He has been a stain on the local political scene in Northern Kalifornia for 25+ years. He is a genuinely reprehensible individual. He is part of whats wrong with politics in America, and the fact that sheeple in the San Mateo area of Kalifornia have sent him back so many times is a testament to the adage of “they get the Gov’t they deserve”.
It would be hard for me to express in such a few words the deep, personal dislike, even hatred I have for this filthy pos. I began to hate him in the early 1980s when he gratuitously insulted the California Army National Guard by making a stupid comment he thought was so clever: He said the Guard “…couldn’t even fight it’s way home after a long weekend”. That comment was made in a public forum and was gleefully reported by the MSM. At the time I was a young, very motivated Staff Sergeant Infantry Rifle Squad Leader (MOS 11B30) in the Cal Guard and I would have been proud to lead my Rifle Squad into combat anytime, anywhere. I would like to have taken out Stark to demonstrate how effective we could be.
That was just the beginning. In the years since Stark has proven over and over, in many arenas, what a thoroughly disgusting piece of excrement he is.
Stark is a degenerate, low-life, disgraceful, low-class, hate-America, reprehensible pos who is thoroughly without any socially or personally redeeming value. His continued existence is a waste of oxygen and nutrition. If he died tomorrow, the Nation would automatically be better by definition.
As far as I am concerned he can go straight to Hell. is that clear enough?
October 18, 2007 - 02:21 PM on October 18th, 2007
Robert, please see the update to this post. Thanks for the tip. Michelle and you must have been thinking the same thing!
October 18, 2007 - 05:28 PM on October 18th, 2007
Yes, I remember hearing about his message to Constituent Dow when it happened. It was another classic example of what a POS Stark is.
It just amazes me how anyone could vote for Stark, but they do and have been for years.
Stark is an example of just how detestable a person can be.
October 18, 2007 - 06:41 PM on October 18th, 2007
Ace had this as his headline: Drunken Lunatic Bursts Into Capitol, Begins Raving Incoherently“Ace
Apparently claiming to be “Representative Pete Stark,” if you can imagine a Congressman acting in such a manner.
October 18, 2007 - 11:59 PM on October 18th, 2007
Stark must be on the bottle or something because the things he says sometimes is just too bizarre. It’s like, gimme the keys, dude, I’m calling you a cab.
October 19, 2007 - 05:55 AM on October 19th, 2007
5, Tofu, Stark is a deranged *sshole. He always has been and always will be. What is it with your side and drunks and sex addicts?