Duncan Hunter for President 2012 — Reasons 1 through 9

1. In 2003, early in the Iraq war, a brave patriot named Lt. Col. Allen B. West acted to save the lives of the men he was commanding in Iraq, by firing his pistol next to a terrorist’s head and threatening to kill the SOB in order to get him to reveal a planned sniper attack, after other interrogation methods failed. The terrorist began singing like a bird, and the ambush was avoided. Yet the military JAGS decided to recommend Lt. Col. West for Court Martial or other “punishment” for his decisive actions. When Congressman Duncan Hunter, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, found out about it, he fired off a letter to the Secretary of the Army saying he was “highly disturbed” by the decision to punish West, and that West’s actions “were necessary to protect the lives and safety of his men”. Eventually, West was fined $5000 and allowed to retire with full benefits. Hunter has stated repeatedly that our Rules of Engagement must allow our guys to “One, destroy the enemy and Two, protect themselves”.

2. In 2004, at the beginning of the Bush/McCain Amnesty push, a constituent wrote a letter to Hunter asking him to oppose amnesty. Hunter’s letter in response to his constituent, consists in part:

“As you may know, amnesty occurred in 1986 and, rather than ending the problem of illegal immigration to the U.S., this action resulted in an influx of illegal aliens crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Unfortunately, I'm concerned that the President's proposal will also fail to address the issue of illegal immigration and widespread disdain of our employment laws. California already has among the largest population of undocumented aliens, and these individuals place a severe strain, financial and otherwise, on our state and local resources.

“In the first ten years after the 1986 amnesty, the Center for Immigration Studies found the direct and indirect costs of services and benefits was more than $78 billion, or about $26,000 per legalized alien. Aliens who get amnesty use expensive social services, particularly health care. According to one estimate, the cost of providing federally-mandated health care to illegal immigrants is between $1.5 billion and $2 billion annually. The citizens of the four border states pay a disproportionate share of these costs.

“The President's proposal will be closely scrutinized by Congress and I can assure you that I will work on behalf of an immigration reform bill that addresses the proliferation of illegal aliens, protects American jobs and secures our borders”.

And he certainly did not disappoint, being the leader of the movement, along with the American people, to scuttle the Kennedy-McCain-Bush amnesty in 2007, when most of his colleagues, even Mike Pence, were going wobbly.

3. During 2004, when the big push was on by McCain, Lindsey Graham, and the democrats to “reform” intelligence by consolidating US Intel assets under one intelligence czar – including DOD intel – Hunter swung into action and rallied the Generals to kill this stupid idea. The Washington Times reporter Rowan Scarborough wrote the following (excerpted) under the headline “Hunter used Myers Letter to Defeat Senate Bill”:

Rep. Duncan Hunter convened a hearing last week with the Joint Chiefs of Staff that put in place the final chess piece in a high-stakes battle to defeat the Senate's version of a far-reaching intelligence reform bill.

Mr. Hunter, a California Republican who chairs the House Armed Services Committee and is a key ally of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, already had secured a letter of support from Gen. Richard B. Myers, the Joint Chiefs chairman.

In the letter, Gen. Myers endorsed Mr. Hunter's -- not the Senate's -- version of the intelligence reform bill because it "maintains this vital flow of resources through the secretary of defense to the combat-support agencies," that is, to intelligence collectors.

At the hearing, Mr. Hunter read the excerpt to the chiefs of the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy. The four-star officers heartily endorsed Gen. Myers' position.

Mr. Hunter now had the top brass behind him to defeat language in the Senate bill that he saw as giving a new director of national intelligence too much power to control the systems and product of Pentagon spy agencies. With Fallujah as a backdrop, Mr. Hunter worried that the Senate bill "translates into ineffectiveness on the battlefield and, at worse, combat casualties,” he told The Washington Times yesterday.

4. In his last Congress session before retirement, Duncan Hunter for the umpteenth time, introduced legislation, the Right to Life Act, a bill that would legally recognize that unborn children are human beings, entitled to the protections of life under the US Constitution. Hunter accompanied his submission of the bill with the following (partial) statement:

“Our greatest obligation as elected leaders is to protect the American people, especially those who are incapable of protecting themselves. On this anniversary of the Roe v Wade decision, it is important that we reflect on the 38 million abortions that have been performed in this country since the practice was legalized in 1973. This is a national tragedy that must not go unnoticed.

“This legislation ensures that the unborn are protected from abortion and further provided the same Constitutional protections provided to all Americans. I am proud to once again introduce this important piece of legislation and I hope my colleagues will join me in support of this effort as they have in the previous Congress.”

5. For his entire career, Duncan Hunter has been the bane of Environmentalist wackos, who have consistently rated him at or near the bottom of their Congressional ‘Report Cards’. A story from the San Diego Union Tribune may help explain this, as well as explain how Hunter has been the most forceful critic of the nanny state. The following is excerpted from a December, 1994 titled “Hunter urges deep EPA, OSHA cuts” in the Tribune:

Rep. Duncan Hunter would slash funding for federal agencies that oversee environmental protection and workplace safety to "free up that heavy hand on free enterprise and promote economic growth”.

Appearing on the public television show "TechnoPolitics," taped for broadcast this weekend, the El Cajon Republican called for substantial cuts in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

"I think we're going to have to cut the budget of the EPA. I think we should cut 30 to 50 percent," Hunter said.

"Government is an industry unto itself. . . . Agencies work to build their kingdoms. And they build their kingdoms by defining new regulations for people to comply with and by enforcing those regulations.

"If you cut their resources, where they don't have a lot of spare time to go out and bother people . . . then by definition, you're going to free up that heavy hand on free enterprise and free people, and we're going to be a more productive country."

Hunter continues his war with the EPA to this very day, calling their proposal to regulate CO2 “inexplicable” and calling out the global warming alarmists (in 2009 before the ClimateGate emails were exposed) by saying: “I think there is a shortage of solid science on the part of the ‘global warmers’. The former head of the American Academy of Sciences, who passed away several years ago, was a staunch foe of this global warming concept. If you look for the hard science, you’ll see there is much less hard science than there are speeches promoting the concept of global warming”.

6. During the 1994 Legislative debates over the grandiose Clinton Crime Bill, Republicans were folding like a house of cards and falling in line with Clinton and his infamous “midnight basketball” crime bill. More ominously, Clinton’s bill had the so-called “Assault Weapons Ban”, the AWB, front and center, outlawing scary looking military ‘style’ semi-automatic rifles. Mitt Romney and Rudy Giluiani were both cheerleading this Crime Bill. Duncan Hunter, on the other hand, was outraged that the supposedly ‘conservative’ Republican Party would go along with this crap, as opposed to his pork-free, AWB-free alternative bill. The Copley News Service captured the essence of his anger in the following (excerpted) article from August, 1994 titled “Clinton deftly plied House GOP to get crime bill”:

The way Rep. Duncan Hunter of El Cajon views the crime bill vote, too many of his fellow Republicans consorted with the enemy.

It was Republicans, after all, who gave President Clinton one of his biggest legislative victories of the year: 46 House Republicans jumped the GOP ship Sunday to vote for the controversial $30 billion package.

Hunter argues that too many of them voted for a flawed bill because they had cut deals with the Democrats to win a little legislative influence.

"Ultimately, they sold their votes to the White House," Hunter said yesterday. "They were obligated."

Hunter was co-author of an alternative crime bill that he claims could have passed had fewer Republicans defected to the other side. A resolution to send the crime bill back to the House-Senate conference committee and to consider Hunter's bill was defeated 232-197.

The lack of support illustrates the debate within the Republican party about how best to influence policy: whether to deal with the Democrats or confront Clinton and his party head-on.

For the record, Hunter has received “A” ratings from the Gun Owners of America and the National Rifle Association his entire career, and was instrumental in blocking legislation to renew the assault weapons ban during the Bush presidency.

7. An illustrative example of the conservative versus RINO split occurred in 1995, after the GOP had won back the House for the first time in 40 years, based largely on their Contract with America. Part of the Contract called for cutting off welfare funds for newly arrived legal immigrants, who by law were supposed to either have their own means of support or have “sponsors” to support them. A no brainer, hence it landed in the Contract with America. Newt Gingrich ran away from this provision, even signaling ahead of time that he would do so, while Duncan Hunter was adamant about slicing another $22 billion out of the bloated federal budget. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette covered the drama in a liberal hit piece titled “AN ALIEN IDEA DENYING WELFARE BENEFITS TO LEGAL IMMIGRANTS IS UNFAIR”. An Excerpt:

Just two days after Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich backed back away from a proposal to make legal immigrants ineligible for welfare benefits, a GOP lawmaker introduced legislation to do just that.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, would bar legal immigrants from receiving food stamps, housing assistance, Supplemental Security Income and Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Immigrants would have three years to become citizens or lose their benefits.

Earlier, Mr. Gingrich, declaring that he was "very pro-legal immigration," had said that the plan, which was written into the GOP's Contract with America, would have to be "revisited."

Mr. Gingrich said the proposal -- which would have affected most of the country's 8.8 million legal immigrants -- was written before Republicans knew they would be in control of Congress and able to find other creative solutions. Insisting that the GOP shouldn't be held to the details of its contract, he said: "We are not going to get trapped into doing something dumb just so you all can say we're consistent."

The legislation introduced by Rep. Hunter would save an estimated $22 billion over five years. That's money the Republicans need to help pay for other welfare reform proposals, tax cuts and other budget-balancing proposals.

And that gap between real conservatives like Hunter and opportunist Republicans like Gingrich has grown ever since.

8. When asked in a March 2010 interview what he thought about Mr. Obama’s new Hope and Change Foreign Policy and the disastrous results to date – including unhappy rumblings from allies Poland, Great Britain, Turkey, and France, Duncan Hunter replied:

“I think this is the 2nd phase of the Obama foreign policy philosophy or foreign policy operations which was to prostrate, in the first phase, to prostrate himself before the world and deliver a number of applause lines to the effect that the United States is not a very good country and is sorry for all of our ‘transgressions’.

“That type of a prostration invites countries to despise us. In the end, countries don’t respect other nations that have no self respect, or appears to have a leader that does not respect his own country. The cheap applause that he got in his early trips has now evolved into resentment in some cases.”

And in regard to Obama de-funding Missile Defenses for ourselves and our allies?

“The United States – you know it’s often said that countries don’t have friends, they have interests. I think pulling back on the Missile Defense program was a manifestation that there is now a fracture in the position that we held ever since Ronald Reagan started Missile Defense. In the face of opposition from the Soviet Union, and then a lot of people in our own country, and from nervous allies, Ronald Reagan established the doctrine - which truly was a doctrine for American presidents - that we had right in our supreme interest of self-preservation, to defend against incoming missile attacks. And we never took a backwards step with respect to that. That’s why we have today the ability to defend against limited missile attacks against the continental US. And that’s why in the Iraq War, there was a 100% shootdown of the missiles that we felt we needed to take down that came out of Saddam Hussein’s defensive batteries when we launched the attack in March of 2003. We took down a handful of SCUD missiles that came in at the British and American forces in Kuwait when that attack was launched.

“So missile defense has always been non-negotiable. Our right to have it has always been non-negotiable. When Obama essentially retreated in meeting with Poland….you know that retreat was telegraphed when he said early on in his administration that he was “looking at” at that. That’s always a signal that it’s negotiable. And ultimately we backed down from that decision.

“I don’t think that inspired respect for the United States. The problem with the United States with a leftwing policy like that is Obama’s always hoping that its going to be interpreted as being a signal of our compassion, humanity, understanding, and graciousness… when in reality, it is interpreted as a sign of weakness.”

9. Duncan Hunter is the only man who is capable of standing up to the communist thugocracy in Red China. His entire career has been spent warning about the dangers of equipping the chicoms with technology, favorable trade deals, and an industrial base, all at our expense. Every one of his predictions about the communist nation has come to pass. Today, they are our largest banker – owning more of our debt than any other nation, and owning the leverage that comes with it. They continue the world’s most aggressive corporate and military spy program, and they continue to pirate whatever US intellectual property they can lay their hands on, all while becoming an industrial giant thanks to US largess. Hunter said in an interview in October 2009: “clearly China is the threat on the horizon”.

His arguments in opposition to treating China as a “partner” are longstanding and exhaustive. But this speech (excerpted) from a 2000 press conference during the run up for the Permanent Most Favored Nation vote (which saw Clinton and the GOP ‘leadership’ working together in favor) is illustrative:

“Good morning. I'm Congressman Duncan Hunter, and we are holding this press conference to talk a little bit about the growing military capability of China that has been pursued largely with American dollars, and to rebut the president's assertion here several weeks ago that somehow it's in our security interest to give this favored trading status to China.

“But first, I think it's important to understand that we are making China economically and militarily strong with American dollars. A few years ago, before we had this enormous trade imbalance in excess of $60 billion in hard American cash in favor of China, China had a tough time buying military equipment around the world. The Russians didn't like to deal with them because they didn't have any cash. Today they are awash with cash. And since 1994, they have begun to pick up critical military elements that will help to make them much more effective against American forces.

“One, the Sovremenny-class missile destroyers that they bought from the Russians were designed to do one thing, and that's to kill American sailors. Specifically, they're designed to kill American aircraft carriers. They're armed with Sunburn missiles, and I can tell you, without getting into classified information, that these extremely fast anti-ship missiles are very, very difficult to defend against. The Chinese know that, their technical people know that. And they've now purchased, with American dollars that they have pulled into their treasury through our trading – their trading surplus over the United States, they use those American dollars to buy these ships, which cost in excess of $300 million a piece, from the Russians.

“So American trade dollars are being used to arm China. And they're being used to arm China in a way which is focused specifically against American forces.

“Secondly, they are building the Su-27 aircraft and purchasing Su-27 aircraft, which are a high-performance aircraft. And they now have a deal to co-produce those aircraft. And that is going to greatly enhance Chinese air power.

“And one advantage that the United States has in that region of the world, and one part of our capability to project a superior power in that part of the world, is as a result of our air power.

“China is attempting to marginalize that superiority. And of course that ascending air power strength that they are now receiving, again, purchased with American dollars, primarily from the Russians, also gives them enormous capability against Taiwan.

“I think it's clear, and most experts agree, that one possibility of a conflict in the future is with China. China is moving now into the superpower shoes that have been left by the Russians. I think most people agree with that.

“The compounded tragedy will be if we have to enter a war in the near future, a conflict either in proxy or a direct war with China, in which American dollars have financed the weapons purchases for both sides.

“At the present, that's what we're doing. We are providing the hard dollars that are financing a military, which is ascending in sea power strength, ascending in underwater sea power strength -- that is, the Kilo submarines they purchased from the Russians -- and also ascending in terms of air power.

“So we are providing the dollars for the Chinese military buildup, which unfortunately is juxtaposed against a declining American military strength. Our military since 1992 has been cut almost in half in terms of force structure. And it's increasingly difficult for us, as we noticed when we did carrier rotations during the Taiwan crises, to project power in that part of that world. We're now making it more and more difficult for our own military forces, our own 19- and 20-year-old kids on those aircraft carriers, to offset this growing Chinese strength.

“It doesn't make sense for the United States and for the U.S. Congress to support a trade policy which arms another country whose officials have made repeated threats, in some cases, to use nuclear weapons on the United States, and whose actions, specifically with reference to Taiwan, appear to be very, very aggressive.

“Now, this is a bad vote. And the few dollars that a few American companies might make in putting together this acceleration of American trade deficits with China will be far offset in American blood.

“Now one other time in this century we badly misjudged Chinese intentions. That was just before the invasion of South Korea in June of 1950. And I would commend to everyone the correspondence between communist China and communist Russia at the time when they evaluated the declining American military strength and their own opportunities in Korea. We misjudged Chinese intentions at that time. And as a result of that, a number of Americans now lay in Arlington Cemetery. We lost 50,000 people in that war.

“Once again, I think we are misjudging Chinese intentions. And we are providing the one thing that the Chinese military system needs to produce a real threat to the United States, and that's hard American dollars.

“And I would hope that our colleagues would vote with us to deny those hard American dollars manifested in this new trade status that China is seeking in the coming vote.”

He is in the fight. Giving us and blog interviews and campaigning for multiple candidates for 2010. I doubt there is anyone else who has covered the number of topics Hunter has covered recent months.

Duncan Hunter Interview 3-5-2010: On Obama the Apostrate, The Reagan Doctrine, and Aging Hippies

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2465638/posts

Duncan Hunter Interview 2/24/2010 – McCain v Hayworth, O’Reilly v 2A, w/cameo from Gunny Pop

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2458713/posts

Duncan Hunter Slams the Obama Adminstration over push for Gays in the Military

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2444696/posts

Duncan Hunter Slams Obama’s SOTU! 1-28-2010 Interview

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2439864/posts

Duncan Hunter Interview – 1/21/2010: Mass. Miracle, Obama, Cheney, Jobs, McCain-Feingold & More!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2435091/posts

Duncan Hunter Interview 1-8-2010: GOP Primary Politics, JD Hayworth, Panty Bomber and FOOTBALL

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2425011/posts

Duncan Hunter Interview - Dec. 18, 2009: On Christmas Blessings, the Gay Agenda, and Don Rumsfeld

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2412548/posts

Duncan Hunter Interview - Dec 8, 2009: On Huckabee, the EPA, GOP Amnesty Hacks, and Harry Reid!!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2404824/posts

Duncan Hunter Interview 12-01-2009: Obama’s Weak Speech, SEALS, ClimateGate, and Shrinking Uncle Sam

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2398503/posts

Duncan Hunter Interview 11-17-09: Terrorist Trials in NY, Amnesty, Sarah Palin and More!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2391044/posts

Duncan Hunter Interview 11-10-09: Gunny Pop, Afghanistan, Terrorism & Political Correctness!!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2384405/posts

Duncan Hunter – Nov. 4, 2009: On the 2009 Elections, Global Warming Alarmists, and Ronald Reagan!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2378862/posts

Duncan Hunter – October 27, 2009: On ObamaCare, RomneyCare and Americans!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2372627/posts

Duncan Hunter 10/9/09 Interview. Bomb Iran, confront China, and work to defeat Socialism!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2360735/posts

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