Death of a Patriot: former Rep. Bob Stump, R-AZ

Human Events ^ | 07-11-03 | Gizzi, John

[Theodore R.]

DEATH OF A PATRIOT: BOB STUMP

Nov . 11, 1999: "This is Bob Stump," snapped the crisp voice on the other end of the line, the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee and veteran Arizona congressman was telephoning me, as he always did, without using a secretary to place the call or having a press secretary handle my request (Stump never even had a press secretary or a congressional web page, never issued a press release nor did media "events"—dismissing all that as "self-promotion crap."). He was calling me to talk about the Veterans Day breakfast Bill Clinton had that morning for the heads of national veterans organizations. How could Clinton claim, fumed Stump, that "‘we have increased the defense budget’ when he vetoed two defense budgets in a row because there was too much money in them?" As he had every year since becoming Veterans Affairs chairman in 1995, the Arizonan declined Clinton’s invitation to join him on Veterans Day because, in Stump’s words, "I have no respect for the man."

In a nutshell, that was the Bob Stump I remembered upon learning that the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs and then the House Armed Services Committee from 2000-02 had died of a blood disorder June 20 in Phoenix. Plainspoken, unassuming, and patriotic. Indeed, as much as any member of Congress who had fought in World War II, the 76-year-old Stump was the embodiment of "the greatest generation."

Phoenix native Robert Lee Stump lied about his age to join the Navy at 16. As a combat medic, he saw action on Luzon, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Following his discharge, Stump returned home to earn a degree in agronomy from what is now Arizona State University and then became a cotton and grain farmer. In 1958, Democrat Stump was elected to the state house of representatives and a decade later, he won a seat in the state senate.

When GOP Rep. (1966-76) Sam Steiger gave up his House seat to become the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, state Senate President Stump topped the Democratic primary for the seat with 31% of the vote over four opponents. In November 1976, Stump put the 3rd District in the Democratic column by edging out Republican and fellow State Sen. Fred Koory. But Stump was different from most of the Democrats elected to the House that year. As HUMAN EVENTS noted after his election (see HE, Nov. 20, 1976), "the Arizona Chamber of Commerce rated Stump the most pro-free enterprise of all Democrats in the state senate. In his congressional campaign, Stump came out against ‘unnecessary government regulations,’ for a ‘balanced federal budget,’ against détente, against giving up the Panama Canal, for mandatory sentences for those convicted of major crimes, and against gun control."

Increasingly uncomfortable in the leftward-lurching Democratic caucus in the House, Stump (lifetime American Conservative Union rating: 97%) finally switched parties in 1981 after voting for President Reagan’s tax and budget cuts. Voters back home didn’t appear to mind; having re-elected the Democratic Stump with 64% of the vote in 1980, they gave him 63% of the vote as a Republican in ’82. Despite his relatively recent minting as a Democrat and a spirited challenge from a much-younger Rep. Curt Weldon (R.-Pa.), Stump nevertheless emerged as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee in ’00. Wielding the gavel at Veterans Affairs and later at Armed Services, Stump sponsored legislation to limit burial at Arlington Cemetery to veterans who were killed on active duty or won major medals; supported a missile defense program; and made no bones of his belief that homosexuality was incompatible with service in uniform. In 2000, Stump was the lone Arizonan member of Congress not to endorse John McCain for President, preferring to remain neutral.

John Gizzi is Political Editor of HUMAN EVENTS.