Hunter still upbeat about presidential bid

WASHINGTON ---- He doesn't draw throngs like Barack Obama or Rudy Giuliani, but U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter has admirers in his longshot bid for the presidency.

The El Cajon lawmaker, who hasn't been able to move his campaign from the bottom tier of GOP candidates, met one of those fans in his Capitol Hill office recently.

"I really admire you and I'm glad you're running," Joe Sangiorgio, a George Washington University political science student and congressional intern, said while getting his picture taken with his choice for president. "I plan to vote for you, and I would give your campaign $50 million if I could."

Sangiorgio must not be paying much attention to the polls or standings in the race for campaign cash: Hunter is polling no more than 3 percent outside California and has raised a relative pauper's sum of less than $2 million.

Despite those numbers, the congressman told the North County Times earlier this month that he has no thoughts of dropping out.

Hunter also reflected on his record in Congress during the last 26 years, saying he is proud of his efforts on behalf of the military and defense industries, and that he believes large numbers of U.S. troops would leave Iraq next year.

Hunter's odds of getting elected president are pegged at 200-1 in Las Vegas, and his chances of raising anywhere near $50 million that Sangiorgio wished for, or suddenly winning favor among a large portion of the electorate, are seen by most observers as slim and none.

Despite that, the affable Hunter has nothing to lose by staying in the race, said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College who specializes in national politics.

"There's really no reason for him to withdraw yet," Pitney said last week. "He gets to take part in national debates standing next to the party's eventual nominee. This could be his last chance for national television exposure, so why give it up?

"He's retiring from Congress, where his party is now in the minority, so staying in and taking part in the primaries is all gain and no pain."

The low numbers Hunter has been getting don't appear to bother the folksy politician, whose 52nd Congressional District includes parts of Poway and Ramona. The former chairman and now-ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee claimed he's had no thoughts of abandoning the effort and suggested surprise at even being asked the question.

"I'm not afraid of an election," he said. "To get out before the first numbers come in doesn't make any sense."

In debates, Hunter speaks forcefully about his desire to protect American jobs, and the needs to improve border security and maintain a strong military.

As the major candidates raise many millions to pay for media buys and dozens of political operatives, Hunter's Oct. 15 campaign finance report shows he has raised a paltry $1.7 million with only $132,741 in available cash. That compares with another bottom-tier candidate, U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, who dropped out of the race Friday despite having raised more than twice as much as Hunter.

"We don't have a bunch of consultants that we have to pay," Hunter said as he munched on a turkey sandwich during a break in a series of votes taking place on the House floor. "We run a highly efficient operation."

Rather than spend his campaign cash on media buys and staff, Hunter gets his message out through the "free media" at presidential debates and as a frequent guest on conservative radio and television. He travels to campaign events by commercial airliner, often relying on volunteers or a single paid staffer to shuttle him around once he's on the ground.

And despite only winning a couple of straw polls, the hawkish conservative will look you straight in the eye and say he is in to win.

"The real contest doesn't start until the January primaries, and I intend to do well in those elections," he said during a conversation in his congressional office, a large room adorned with numerous mementos and pictures of Hunter and his supporters during his time in office.

Hunter said he believes he has influenced the debate, pointing to his criticism of U.S. trade policy with China, which he says gives the Asian giant an unfair advantage over American manufacturers. He also claims to be the first to call for pre-emptive military action against Iran if it's shown that country is near production of an atomic weapon.

The leading GOP candidates have followed suit on Iran, building a fence along the majority of the border with Mexico and improving the trade and economic climate for U.S. manufacturers to preserve American jobs, he said.

"I think we're having a great effect. I'm out there every day trying to do the best I can to communicate my ideas and see if we can't draw a crowd."

But the crowds haven't responded in the way he had hoped. Nonetheless, he said plans to stay around after the first round of primaries and caucuses.

"If you get to the point where you're not getting any numbers at all and can't possibly recover, you don't stay in just for symbolic reasons," he said.

As he wraps up the penultimate year of his congressional career, Hunter said he will always be proud of his relationship with the military.

"The Armed Services Committee is one where you can really get things done," said the Vietnam War veteran, who was the panel's chairman until this year. "I was able to help rebuild the military during the Reagan era and work through the start of the missile defense system and the Contra wars."

In recent months, he has helped speed the development of new mine-resistant armored personnel carriers and increase funding and attention on efforts to defeat roadside bombs.

"We're in a new era of terrorists with technology and we've got to be able to respond. You take the best positions you can and try every day to do something good for this country.

"It's a long war, and there's not going to be any surrender ceremony like we saw on deck of the battleship USS Missouri at the end of World War II."

Despite some accusations of ties to men convicted or charged in the scandal of his friend and former U.S. Rep. Randy Cunningham, that relationship has not dogged Hunter on the campaign trail. Beyond a defense attorney's failed effort to subpoena him and other lawmakers, Hunter's name has not surfaced in any of the investigations linked to the now-imprisoned Cunningham.

When Hunter leaves Congress, his replacement could be his son, Duncan Duane Hunter, a U.S. Marine now serving in Afghanistan. The younger Hunter will face at least two other GOP challengers during the primary in his bid to keep a Hunter hold on the 52nd District and the family philosophy a part of California's congressional delegation.

Somewhat surprisingly, Hunter is opposed to seeing the Marine Corps leave Iraq and assume major combat responsibility in Afghanistan, which Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway is advocating.

Hunter said he would rather see the 25,000 Marines come home from Iraq, as that country's fledgling army assumes responsibility for security with quick reaction forces called in if needed.

"Al-Qaida has been defeated on the battlefield in Anbar because of the hard work of the Marines," he said. "I would like to see the Marines rotate out of Iraq, and Afghanistan should be a place where our NATO allies really start participating in a more robust manner."

He predicted that the number of U.S. troops in Iraq next year will be far lower than the current 160,000. Putting greater pressure on the Iraqis to provide their own security could lead to substantial withdrawal of U.S. troops in the coming months, he said.

Let's play, who knows the enemy best. The Long March leaves for the Moon tomorrow:

Favorite Trading Nation? Or threat? Pentagon says threat. Duncan Hunter says threat. What would your candidate do?

Excerpt:

Duncan Hunter: You know this last report on China actually received lots of criticism from the State Department because it was very candid about assessing this enormous growing military strength of China. The assessment of the Pentagon was they are doing so much more then they have to do for self defense. They are building an offensive capability. When they shot that satellite out of space on January 11th, because America’s military eyes are largely in space, that really hurdled a new era of military competition between the U.S. and China in space. Like it or not, if you have to rely on satellites for movement of special forces or army brigades or marine corps divisions, you have to rely on satellites for that, and your satellites are in danger, you are in trouble. So we have our eyes, our military eyes [on China]. Plus a lot of our economic capabilities are reflected through our space apparatus. You have to protect that. We are going to have to spend a lot of money now and take a lot of effort to neutralize what is an aggressive Chinese policy in regard to space.

Hugh Hewitt: Let’s talk about the media and China. I asked you about this on the radio yesterday, how many questions have you had about China in the course of the Campaign. You have been on the trail for how long?

Duncan Hunter: We have had 4 congressional debates now and we have been out campaigning hard this entire year. We had one great question, I think it came from either Brit Hume or one of his team, during the Fox debate in the South Carolina, last question of the debate to me on China. I was able to give, you only have one minute answer, I try to be a master on the compact answers, I laid out that we have this cheating on trade which is stacking up billions to China and they are using this money to arm. This presents a long term challenge to the United States. Maybe not a direct threat; but a military threat is comprised of two things, capability and intent. They certainly are building a capability to cause us a lot of harm. And the intent of China is always difficult to understand.

Those tough old communists that ran the Poly Bureau are still running things. We see these generals make wild statements like, “We hope you value L.A. more than you do Taiwan”. That is a thinly veiled threat to nuke L.A. Then there will be a flurry of newspaper statements by people saying well, ‘general so and so didn’t mean it’. Well I hope general so and so is pretty far away from that nuclear trigger. Because that is a wild statement. You see those wild statements that came out of Yunnan Island where the American plane was shot down or was forced down, and the wild statements that came out of there diplomacy core after that were tempered by their trade people. But it shows us there is a element of leadership that is embedded in the Chinese hierarchy that is very aggressive, very anti American and very war like. It is difficult to know which element of the Chinese leadership is going to dominate the government in 5 years.

(snip)

Marshal Xu Xiangqian

Long March Leaders

Marshal Xu Xiangqian

Xu Xiangqian (pronounced Shu Shee-ang-Chee-an) was from Jiangxi Province. He was a fine general with Zhang Guotao's Fourth front Army. He was Zhang's principle commander with Ye Jianying as Chief of Staff. A split developed between Zhang's forces and Chairman Mao's First Front Army. The Fourth Front Army numbered about 80,000 combat troops and about 80,000 noncombatant personnel. Mao's forces numbered about 10,000 at that time. It was a very dangerous moment in the history of the Party. One Red Army was about to attack another. After Mao's Red Army slipped away to avoid the trouble after being warned by General Ye Jianying, Xu was told, "That a strange thing has happened. The First Army has pulled out. Shall we attack and go after them?" Xu replied, "Have you ever seen the Red Army attacking the Red Army?" That was it. There was to be no attack.

Both Xu and Ye Jianying got credit for stopping a serious conflict. Xu eventually left Zhang's Army and joined Mao in Yan'an. He was named one of China's Ten Marshals in 1955. Because of the stopping of the conflict, Mao protected Xu during the worst of the Cultural Revolution.

Marshal Xu Xiangqian

"Hunter never overdrawn. He paid for overdraft protection."

Ohhh Puhhhleeeaseeeee. The House didn't offer "overdraft protection" that you could "purchase".

Look up the definition of rationalizing.

Excerpted from an article I found here on FR

Receipt of the three-paragraph missive, on stationery of the Office of the Attorney General, brings an official close to a painful episode for the six-term congressman. An outspoken conservative who ranks fifth in the House Republican leadership, Hunter has generally avoided major public blunders during his 12 years in office. But word of the 399 overdrafts set his political world spinning.

When the House Bank scandal broke last fall, Hunter said, "Nobody has ever had a Duncan Hunter check returned for insufficient funds." The statement was interpreted as a curt denial, but turned out to be an accurate -- and carefully worded -- description of how the loosely run bank worked. It routinely covered overdrawn accounts with other members' funds.

Boy this is almost as good of "spinning" as you'd expect from Bubba or Hillary.

Hunter was right: Nobody had lost any money -- and the bank had operated that way for decades.

But before the House held a dramatic floor vote on disclosing the names of all members who had had overdrafts, Hunter admitted that he routinely wrote checks without sufficient funds at the House Bank -- and at his California account at the Bank of Coronado.

Knowingly writing checks on accounts that have insufficient funds in them is I believe a criminal act. Yes everyone "floats" checks, doesn't make it right.

As a self-described "industrial strength" overdrafter, Hunter paid extra for protection against bounced checks in Coronado.

To justify his overdrafts at the House Bank, Hunter pointed to a scholarship fund he had set up in 1985 to aid needy district students. Hunter said the fund, to which he has donated more than $12,000, was his way of paying for congressional "perks," including the House Bank's de facto overdraft protection.

The scholarship fund payments brought him into "moral balance" on the issue, Hunter said at the time.

The rationale was widely regarded as imaginative -- and unconvincing.

This sounds like Bubba, "So since I've done so many good things, that outweighs that little Monica thing and Paula and Jaunita and.................."

Spin it however you want, the fact is DH made 399 bad decisions totaling $129,000 in overdrafts. That would land any of us in hot water.

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