Republicans Seeking to Condemn Rep. Stark's Remark

In remarks on the House floor this week, Congressman Pete Stark (D-Fremont, Calif.) blasted President Bush for his veto of the SCHIP reauthorization, citing the continued war in Iraq, that sparked a chorus of outrage from Republicans and may land the 18-term congressman in hot water come Monday.

Stark said:

First of all, I'm just amazed that the Republicans are worried that we 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? You are 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 or children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we 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.

The remarks set off a firestorm of outrage from Republicans. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-West Chester, Ohio) immediately demanded that Rep. Stark apologize for his comments as other Republicans issued statements of rage to the press. If you happen to be a FOX News viewer, you probably have the inflections of Stark's voice memorized by now.

Republicans weren't alone, however. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco, Calif.), stopping short of seeking an apology from Rep. Stark, called his comments "inappropriate."

But as the conservative cable programs find yet another reason not to cover actual news, sources say Republicans are gearing up for a resolution on Monday condemning Rep. Stark's comments.

Now, I don't agree with Rep. Stark's comment, but wasting the time to draft, debate and vote on resolutions condemning what boils down to free speech is, to me, a much more serious transgression. It was dumb when they did it to MoveOn.org and would have been no better to do it to Rush Limbaugh over his "phony soldiers" nonsense.

Plus, didn't you hear? We're in a war. Two, in fact. And we're not winning either of them. Nearly 50 million Americans are without health coverage. And we've got bridges and roads collapsing all over the place. New Orleans is still a mess. But hey, let's forget the First Amendment exists. Then, all of our problems are solved.

What happened to the Party of Eisenhower? It is fascinating how Republicans enjoy parading around as tough on crime and strong on national defense and rail against "political correctness" but become unglued and turn into a bunch of seven-year olds demanding their political enemies "take it back!"

It is the only card the Republicans have to play. A desperate effort to change the story from the GOP's relentless smearing of a 12-year old kid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blatantly lying about his office's involvement in the smear campaign, and outright lies about the SCHIP program from cover to cover.

Comments

[research]

How dare Stark speak truth to power! Because he has balls! Go Stark! Repeat it every day! BushCo lied us into an unjustified war and would prefer lower middle class children die to fund it!

Impeach Polosi!

[el35]

Pete Stark for President! No guts Pelosi should resign and let the Democrats elect someone like Stark or Murtha for Speaker!

[wondererwhy]

I think Rep. Kucinich would make a great Speaker. He seems to know what needs to be done. He just hasn't had the support of the (so called) leaders.

[research]

Kucinich! Could he still run for president? We need him there too.

[SteveL]

Note to Congressman Pete Stark: Right on. Don’t apologize for anything. Keep it up.

[TheQuestion]

Give it a rest rupubs these useless resolutions are a waste of time. They don't make you look any better in fact to the contrary it makes you look quite weak and foolish.

[newunderground]

Yeah, useless resolutions are what Democrats are for! How dare you!

[LilyMaskew]

It is so refreshing to see someone speak up for a change on the Democratic side. Keep up the good work Rep. Start!

[Purcy]

I expect the republicans to condemn Pete Stark. My God, he spoke the truth and they really don't like that. I don't expect Democrats to condemn him! I expect them to thank him for telling the truth!

[MajorKong]

So is this the GOP phony outrage of the week? I didn't get the memo from the RNC.

[Doofus]

'...I'm just amazed that the Republicans are worried that we 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? You are 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 or children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we 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.­'

This is a man who seems deeply frustrated.

Under Repo leadership STILL, we are willing
to borrow huge sums to fund the war in Iraq,
out of some perceived notion of necessity.

While some (only) are willing to jack up a cigarette
tax still higher to provide health care benefits
for some poor kids. Borrow huge amounts for one
but not modest amounts for the other. Outrageous!
No funding for one would make lots of funds for the other!

And for this, Speaker Pelosi would insist that
'a sense of decorum' be maintained. WE DON'T THINK SO, Madame Speaker!

[dniso]

Is it too late for 'Stark for President'? It's refreshing to finally see someone with backbone.

[DavidJames]

Here are links to Pete Stark's Huffington Post Bloggers Bio and Wikipedia entry.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pete-stark

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Stark

Interesting background!

[DavidJames]

It would be terrible if Rep. Stark kept bringing this up.

"Republicans won't insure an additional 10 million children.
But they do want hundreds of billions to fight the illegal war in Iraq.
They want to blow up innocent people and get our kids' heads blown off for the president's amusement.­"

"Republicans won't insure children, but they want to fund Iraq."

Just terrible. It would be especially terrible to keep bring this up..... for Republicans.

Say it again Pete!

[RobertPaul]

I just sent the following to Pelosi:
----------­----------­---------
You must stop the Republicans from taking the time of the Congress to sponsor a bill condemning Rep. Stark. This has gone far enough! If ANYONE should be censured it should be McConnell for his bare faced lie to the media (and American public) about his complicity in the sliming of the Frost boy. Most of us out here in the real world think that there should be a lot more of the kind of talk that Stark used and less wasting time on meaningless PURELY obfuscating partisan bills with no value whatsoever.
----------­----------­-------
You can express your view at:
http://www.speaker.gov/
As always ...be nice!

[dniso]

Agreed! And the media for reporting on such non-since! Remember the 2000 election? Who would you prefer to have a drink with, or who would stop to help if your car broke down, or the color of Al's suite! If the media stopped reporting on the bullshit and focused on the issues we would not have clowns such as these in office.

[Rescisco]

Mr. Stark's choice of words is unfortunate, perhaps stupid. But until the GOP members apologize for every stupid and mean thing they have ever said in their unceasing efforts to demonize their opponents, he should not apologize. In essence, President Bush deserves the same respect the Republican hate masters gave to President Clinton (remember?). Payback's a bitch!

[chilifan]

I disagree. Mr. Stark sounded more like the average American when they are controlling the rage they have against the machine. Personally, my words would have been far more "colorful.­" This nice guy attitude is a losing proposition for the democrats. Human instinct when confronting a dangerous situation is fight or flight. As long as Pelosi and Reed keep choosing the latter, they are useless.

[Rosanneofpgh]

Mr. Stark's words were NOT unfortunate or even stupid. He was telling the truth. This maladministration has done nothing to help the less fortunate among us. In fact, they do all they can to get rid of them. They take away the rights of ALL americans and nobody does shit about it, especially this do-nothing congress.

Mr. Stark has his head on straight and just told the truth. (Who can forget prez fucksupalot's "funny" video of him looking under chairs in the oval office for WMDs and saying, nope, not there??)

Mr. Stark has nothing to apologize for; kudos to him for having the balls to tell the truth.

[Via]

He was speaking the truth. Remember the press dinner skit Bush performed? "Those Weapons of Mass Destruction must be here somewhere!" Under the desk? Not here! Behind the chair? Not here! He AND his lousy enablers in the MSM were highly amused. The families of the troops killed and maimed while searching for those WMDs, which Bush knew were not there from the beginning, were not laughing. Every time someone dares open his/her mouth to criticize what Starkman said - you remind him/her of THAT. Someone has the video up, not sure if it is Crooks and Liars or Americablog, maybe the Left Coaster, but I saw it yesterday in response to the Republican uproar.

[CriminallySane]

He should say it again. And more people ought to say similar things. Bush is a sick, twisted failure of a human being, and that an not be repeated enough.