GOP opponent blasts Doolittle as an extremist

Sacramento Bee ^ | Published 9:26 a.m. PST Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2001 | David Whitney -- Bee Washington Bureau

[Vis Numar]

WASHINGTON -- Bill Kirby minces no words when it comes to his feelings about Rep. John Doolittle, the Rocklin conservative Kirby hopes to unseat in the March Republican primary.

Kirby contends that Doolittle is too extreme politically, and that his support of building an Auburn dam and opposition to abortion rights are out of step with 4th District voters.

[Vis Numar]

Pretty strong challenge from the left, they guy sounds like a Democrat running in the GOP primary.

[Texas_Longhorn]

Doesn't the Sacramento Bee seem a little one sided on this article?

[jwalsh07]

I got three words for Kirby, GFY.

[Chi-townChief]

"His hard anti-abortion stand is unacceptable," Kirby said. "I'm a Catholic, but I believe what a woman does with her body should be between her and her God, not the government."

I guess Mr. Kirby means that it's time for legal prostitution and drug usage (including, of course, uninfringed use of tobacco.)

[Cuttnhorse]

The Auburn Dam has been on the books for some 40 YEARS!!! Back in the 60's when I was a miner on the upper American River project, (Brushy Canyon tunnel, French Meadows surge shaft). The environmental nutsos have had their way with weak-knee'ed government types and have painted this project as being worse than a nuclear power plant.
Anyone who says it won't generate power because there isn't enough drop doesn't understand pentstocks and hydro power generation.

[dubyajames]

His liberal stances are bad enough, but the way he expresses himself reveals him to be a complete idiot. I especially like, "I'm a Catholic, but" as he goes on to lecture his own church. I hope he is defeated by 80 points.

[anniegetyourgun]

He just makes me want to vomit," the Auburn urologist said in a telephone interview Monday.

You're right - anyone who talks like this in the campaign does not have the temperment for public office. He can keep that kind of language in his medical clinic. Better yet, he should quit now before he makes an even bigger horse's behind of himself.

[Randy Larsen]

Doolittle is my congressman and is very popular, Kirby doesn't stand a chance of beating him in the primary.

[Torie]

Kirby said he strenuously disagrees with Doolittle over education policy and strongly opposes vouchers that parents could use to put their children in private schools.

Well naturally this one caught my attention. Although Doolittle is not in my wing of the party, no money for Kirby from Torie, even if I had an interest in funding internecine primary battles, which I rarely do. (I doubt know anything about the merits of the dam, although dams these days are typically problematical economically, and sometimes otherwise.)

Sad to say, I think Osama has killed off the voucher movement for at least a decade. Rather costly collateral damage, but facts are facts. You can imagine how the debate will go when it comes to cashing in vouchers at schools with religious ties. And there is not a neat solution for finessing it. Sad, very sad.

[jwalsh07]

We are lockstep on vouchers Torie. I see them as the equivalent of the GI Bill for kids on the highway to nowhere.

[dubyajames]

You're right - anyone who talks like this in the campaign does not have the temperment for public office.

It also works against the purpose of his run. He is attempting to position himself as a rational centrist/mainstream moderate running against a radical, right-wing, fire-breathing fundamentalist. By being such a loose cannon and eschewing civility completely, he only makes Doolittle look good and himself like the jacka$$ that he is.

[Torie]

I can't think actually of a district in California with worse demographics for Kirby's message. He might have gotten more traction in my district, the most GOP in California, but socially considerably more moderate, with a Congressman that has discovered that Hezbollah (sp), the terrorist gang in Lebanon, might have certain redeeming qualities. And folks in my district are far too selfish and happy with their own somewhat functional public schools, isolated islands in a sea of dysfunctionality, to give a damn about the systematic screwing of poor kids' educational opportunities by the state.

[Ghee]

Kirby is a trouble maker. In letters to the editor of the Auburn Journal this is very plain. In Placer county where Doolittle is the Rep. it is at least 65% conservative. GWB won by a good margin. And the Auburn Dam is wanted by almost everyone except the Sierra Club, which the enviros fund greatly here. It was Jimmy Carter that stopped the building of the Auburn Dam. It is known widely what kind of President he was.....just spoiled lots of things. Since the election of Gray-Out Davis, and all of his democratic partners in the crime of spoiling all the good things of California....Kirby has been on that side. Nothing more needs to be said about what he really is.....a RINO.

[RichInOC]

Urologists who want to run for office should probably avoid referring to bodily functions. Do I really have to explain why?

[Gophack]

"His hard anti-abortion stand is unacceptable," Kirby said. "I'm a Catholic, but I believe what a woman does with her body should be between her and her God, not the government."

Please! I absolutely detest that "what a woman does with her body ..." crap. What about what a woman does to another person's body? And Catholic! He obviously isn't practicing, nor does he have an in-depth understanding of his faith.

And the auburn dam! We NEED that dam. Kirby is an environmentalist wacko who thinks the planet is more important that the human lives on it (born and unborn).

Though Doolittle isn't my congressman (I have another great conservative, Richard Pombo), I know a lot about his record and have a lot of respect for him. But it's typical of the liberal republicans. They want to fight even someone who is effective.

Go Doolittle!

[Gophack]

Doesn't the Sacramento Bee seem a little one sided on this article?

The Sacramento Bee is ALWAYS one-side on any issue against conservatives.