Why Pete Stark is staying put

Rep. Pete Stark won't become interim chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

Stark, D-Fremont, was the next-most-senior Democrat on the tax-writing committee after former Chairman Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., 79, who temporarily stepped aside Wednesday pending the conclusion of an Ethics Committee probe into his corporate-paid travel. House rules said Stark, 78, would automatically ascend to the chair unless he declined, or unless House Democrats voted to pass him over.

But other Democrats on the committee reportedly were concerned about Stark's hot-tempered tendencies — which has included some eye-watering tirades and blunt speech on the House floor, in committee hearings and at constituent meetings in his district — as well as about his health, which has kept him from many roll calls in the past year. As Rangel stepped down to blunt Republican attacks in advance of November's midterm elections, these Democrats seemed to feel Stark wasn't a safer replacement.

Today, Stark said in an exclusive interview that he prefers to remain chairman of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee so he can shepherd and implement health care reform. Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., 79, will become the full committee's interim chairman instead.

"It seems to me we've got a chance in this Congress — maybe, unfortunately, into the next Congress, but over the next three years — the best chance we've ever had to get decent health Advertisement care reform, and I've been working on that a long time," said Stark, who has served in the House since 1973.

"Quite honestly, the idea of being chair of Ways and Means and running around the country trying to raise money is the last thing I want to do," he added, calling fundraising on behalf of fellow Democrats for the midterm elections "not exactly my long suit."

Asked whether his feelings were bruised by his fellow Democrats apparent lack of confidence, he replied, "Actually, not." Whatever his peers were discussing, he said, he decided health-care reform is his top priority and the health subcommittee is the best place for him to act on it: "I just think I've worked on it too long to be distracted by a bunch of other bureaucratic duties."

As for his health, Stark acknowledged that he was sidelined — and in and out of the hospital — in the spring of 2009 with pneumonia; while tests conducted this January showed him fully recovered, those tests found a small blood clot in one lung which required him to be on blood thinners in recent months. He has fully recovered from that by now, too, he said.

"As of now, I've just got to exercise more," he said, noting that's made harder by nerve problems in his left leg. "Other than that, most of my moving parts are in working order."

In a statement e-mailed earlier today, Stark had written that "(w)e are at the cusp of achieving health care reform and we must remain focused on moving forward.

"From COBRA coverage to keeping Medicare strong, I have devoted my career to making health care better and more accessible to Americans. I am committed to working to ensure that health care is affordable for people of all income levels and that we protect and improve Medicare for seniors and people with disabilities," he said in the statement. "Once we pass health reform, it will take careful oversight to make sure that it is being implemented correctly. I have chosen to remain Chair of the Health Subcommittee and look forward to working with my colleagues on these vital priorities."

Allegations of ethical improprieties have dogged Rangel for several years, with Republicans mounting a constant call for him to step aside. Stark had said in December 2008 that the only way he'd want the chairmanship permanently was if Rangel freely chose to retire from it.

"I'm good at it. I may mouth off about George W. Bush or whatever, but I've put together some of the most complex bipartisan legislation, much of it for Ronald Reagan for chrissakes," Stark had said in the run-up to President Barack Obama's inauguration and first 100 days. "I'd lay my credentials on the table and see if I could get the job, but with all we have to do now, I don't even want that to come up, it would be so distracting."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, issued a statement this morning saying Stark had informed her of his desire to remain as Health Subcommittee chairman.

"Pete Stark has been a leader in health insurance reform, and we will continue to rely upon him as we enter the final stretch of ensuring health care for all Americans," she said. "With Congressman Stark's decision, Congressman Sander Levin is now acting Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. As Chairman, Sandy Levin will be a powerful advocate for addressing the urgent needs of the American people."

I just went over to Wikipedia and they have listed all of his “controversies”. He is also an avowed athiest. He definately has many “ethical” challenges against him also.

The Founding Fathers made it quite clear that they expected Christians or at least those who believe in Divine Providence to be elected to positions of power. How far this Republic has fallen.

John Adams and John Hancock:
We Recognize No Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus! [April 18, 1775]

John Adams:
“ The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principals of Christianity… I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”
“[July 4th] ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.” –John Adams in a letter written to Abigail on the day the Declaration was approved by Congress
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." --October 11, 1798

Samuel Adams:
“ Let divines and philosophers, statesmen and patriots, unite their endeavors to renovate the age by impressing the minds of men with the importance of educating their little boys and girls, inculcating in the minds of youth the fear and love of the Deity… and leading them in the study and practice of the exalted virtues of the Christian system.” [October 4, 1790]

Elias Boudinot:
“ Be religiously careful in our choice of all public officers . . . and judge of the tree by its fruits."

Charles Carroll: signer of the Declaration of Independence
" Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure...are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments." [Source: To James McHenry on November 4, 1800.]

Patrick Henry
“It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.” [May 1765 Speech to the House of Burgesses]

Thomas Jefferson:
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.” (excerpts are inscribed on the walls of the Jefferson Memorial in the nations capital) [Source: Merrill . D. Peterson, ed., Jefferson Writings, (New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 1984), Vol. IV, p. 289. From Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, 1781.]

James Madison:
“ We’ve staked our future on our ability to follow the Ten Commandments with all of our heart.”
“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity…to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” [1778 to the General Assembly of the State of Virginia]
A watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest, while we are building ideal monuments of renown and bliss here, we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven. [Letter by Madison to William Bradford [urging him to make sure of his own salvation] November 9, 1772]

Jedediah Morse:
"To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. . . . Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all blessings which flow from them, must fall with them."

Benjamin Rush
“I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them…we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government; that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible; for this Divine Book, above all others, constitutes the soul of republicanism.”
“By withholding the knowledge of [the Scriptures] from children, we deprive ourselves of the best means of awakening moral sensibility in their minds.” [Letter written (1790’s) in Defense of the Bible in all schools in America]
“Christianity is the only true and perfect religion.”
“If moral precepts alone could have reformed mankind, the mission of the Son of God into our world would have been unnecessary.”

Justice Joseph Story:
“ I verily believe Christianity necessary to the support of civil society. One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law. . . There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying its foundations.” [Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States p. 593]
“ Infidels and pagans were banished from the halls of justice as unworthy of credit.” [Life and letters of Joseph Story, Vol. II 1851, pp. 8-9.]
“ At the time of the adoption of the constitution, and of the amendment to it, now under consideration [i.e., the First Amendment], the general, if not the universal sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the state, so far as was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience, and the freedom of religious worship.” [Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States p. 593]
"Let the children who are sent to those schools be taught to read and write and above all, let both sexes be carefully instructed in the principles and obligations of the Christian religion. This is the most essential part of education” Letters of Benjamin Rush, "To the citizens of Philadelphia: A Plan for Free Schools", March 28, 1787

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