http://www.rollcall.com/news/ Heard on the Hill Note to Self — Get Unlisted Phone Number May 11, 2004 Constituents of Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) better be careful when they criticize the combative 16-term lawmaker.
John Bresnahan wrote a great article about this Pete Stark flap, where he called a constituent to reply to a letter he received. But that voicemail was very insulting and used profanity. Here the voicemail: http://images.radcity.net/5152/663017.wav
FRom a paper in his district ... the Argus Online
Stark message gets heated response
Congressman calls letter's author, insults man's intelligence; voice mail played on Limbaugh show, Internet
By Josh Richman and Sandhya Somashekhar, STAFF WRITERS
A man who wrote to Rep. Pete Stark criticizing his Thursday vote against a resolution on abuse of Iraqi prisoners received a personal reply within the hour -- voice mail from Stark inviting him to explain why he thinks he's "such a great goddamn hero."
"I think I got the point across," Stark, D-Fremont, said Friday after the voice-mail message had been posted online and become the topic of heated local talk radio. Syndicated host Rush Limbaugh played it nationwide later Friday.
"I probably would've left out the blasphemy. ... It was a poor choice of words," added Stark, 72. "Other than that, I would stand by the entire statement that I made to him. We can't call back our words. If that's the part that offended him, I would humbly apologize."
"I guess that means he stands by his statement that enlisted men are too stupid to spell," shot back Daniel L. Dow, 33, the Newark tech sales executive, Army National Guard sergeant and 2002 Republican Assembly candidate who drew Stark's ire.
"It was assaulting the very person he's there to represent," said Dow, who returned in January from a six-month deployment to Kosovo. "Rather than saying, 'Mr. Dow, I hear your opinion, and though I don't share it, I appreciate hearing it,' he leaves this message. This isn't a barroom brawl kind of arena."
Dow faxed Stark a letter Thursday afternoon saying he was "appalled" by Stark's vote against the resolution, noting many of Stark's constituents are serving in the military with pride and distinction. Dow wrote that Stark's vote shows he doesn't support troops selflessly serving their nation, and "is a disgrace to the people of this district who have elected you. "I urge you to stop your contemptuous display of bitter partisanship and your politicization of this war. Your actions are very divisive and destructive to the morale of our troops and the morale of our nation. I know that a majority of the population of the 13th Congressional District are very strong in their support of our soldiers and in their support of the war in Iraq. Your 'no' vote today reflects that you are way out of touch with the people of this district."
Stark soon left Dow a phone message saying Dow didn't know what he was talking about, and that Stark believed someone had put Dow up to writing the letter, perhaps even writing it for him: "I doubt if you could spell half the words in your letter."
"But I'll call you back later and let you tell me more about why you think you're such a great goddamn hero, and why you think that this general and the Defense Department who forced these poor enlisted guys to do what they did shouldn't be held to account -- that's the issue," Stark said. "So if you want to stick it to a bunch of enlisted guys, have your way, but if you want to get to the bottom of the people who forced this awful program in Iraq, then you should understand more about it than you obviously do. Thanks."
Dow gave Stark's taped message to KSFO 560 AM, which aired and discussed it Friday morning. The station also posted it on the Internet and sent it to Limbaugh, who played it nationwide later Friday. Limbaugh said Stark spoke "typically as a liberal would to an upstart, peasant, dare-to-speak-to-a-congressman citizen.
"This illustrates what I've always told you about liberals -- they are condescendingly arrogant, they think you're idiots, you're not smart enough to make life decisions that will protect you and anybody else," the radio host raged. "And if you do come across as intelligent, somebody else had to write this for you because you don't have the guts and you don't have the brains and you don't have the ability to do things like this on your own, you're not as smart as Fortney 'Pete' Stark is."
Thursday's resolution passed 365-50 with 19 members not voting. Ron Paul, R-Texas, was the lone GOP vote against it, while Democrats against it included House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco; Barbara Lee, D-Oakland; George Miller, D-Martinez; and Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma.
At a news conference earlier Thursday, Pelosi noted Democrats had wanted to amend the resolution to call for bipartisan Congressional investigation of all abuses committed by military personnel or civilian contractors, "including the command atmosphere that contributed to such abuse."
"Despite our pleadings last night, the Republicans would not put in the resolution a call for looking into the behavior of the contractors in Iraq," she said.
The resolution's final draft urged the Secretary of the Army to investigate "any and all allegations of mistreatment or abuse of detainees in Iraq," correct any problems found, "bring swift justice" to troops who violated military law, and report to Congress often.
Stark said Friday the ultimate question must be: "Was this in fact ordered, implicitly or directly, by the Department of Defense, the CIA, the administration, or was it just six rogue enlisted guys?"
"Part of our concern was that without a Congressional investigation ... it will be left to the administration to cover up the obvious involvement of the Department of Defense and the administration of condoning, if not creating, the atmosphere that allowed this to go on," he said. "There are those of us inside the Beltway ... who are sometimes suspicious of the tenacity with which the fox can in fact guard the henhouse."
Alameda maritime consultant and U.S. Naval Reserve veteran George Bruno, Stark's GOP challenger in November, said Stark "has a history of this type of behavior."
"Stark's disdain for the military is a slap in the face to all who have served and sacrificed to protect this county," Bruno said, adding the district has been disadvantaged because Stark "refuses to value diversity of opinion above his personal preferences."
Dow ran for the 20th Assembly District seat in 2002, losing to Democratic incumbent John Dutra. He served in the U.S. Army from 1989 to 1994, reaching the rank of sergeant and serving as a Korean linguist in the Military Intelligence Corps.
Stark was a U.S. Air Force first lieutenant from 1955 to 1957 and then served six years in the Air Force Reserve, retiring as a captain. Elected to the House in 1972, his district includes Alameda, San Leandro, Hayward, Union City, Newark, Fremont, part of Pleasanton and some unincorporated areas including San Lorenzo.
Stark has a habit of dusting it up with his critics.
During a tumultuous Ways and Means Committee hearing last July, Stark called another lawmaker -- an ex-policeman 21 years his junior -- a "wimpy fruitcake" who couldn't "make him shut up." Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., replied by telling Stark to "take his medication." But ultimately it was committee chairman Bill Thomas, R-Bakersfield, who offered a tearful apology on the House floor for that day's events; he had called Capitol police to evict committee Democrats from a library where they were caucusing.
Boy, this guy really is a POS. His outright treachery is a bit refreshing, and much preferred to guys like my senator who shade the truth and try to keep as many constituents in the dark as possible to stay in office.
Fortney Stark is an arrogant, condescending jerk. But I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if his district sends him right back to congress this fall.
In Texas, that little exchange would have been an opportunity to invite him to a BBQ, then discuss a little matter of who works for who.
He is 72 so he'd better bring some help, if he wants to talk the talk he best be ready to walk the walk.
( I am sure volunteers could be found to help him both lie down and volunteers to carry him off the property )
but he isn't in Texas
I'm no fan of Pete Stark, but maybe I've lived in Alaska too long to consider the message I just listened to insulting and profane. Childish, certainly, in its presentation and logic. There are more important reasons to dislike the Congressman.
I heard the phone call to KSFO that started it all last Thursday as Barbara Simpson guest hosted the Brian Sussman show. I was afraid that she would hang up on Daniel Dow, who received the call, before getting a copy of the tape left on his cell phone's voice mail by Stark Raving Mad. I was screaming at the radio in my car, and finally, she asked him to stay on hold.
Just saw it on FOX Special Report with Brit Hume. That Stark actually called a Congresswoman a "whore". And he called another California Congressman, "a fruitcake, you're a fruitcake, I said you're a fruitcake? Are you man enough to take me on?"
This guy definitely needs medication.
