Oh frabjous day (political)
Jan. 23rd, 2006 02:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumRep. Pombo (R Calif) is one of the scummiest members of Congress.
Today I find he has a challenger, someone who wants to take over the seat he has been sullying in the House of Representatives.
A republican.
A former Member of the House.
Pete McCloskey.
McCloskey is charging out of the gate with a campaign which ought to make a Democrat proud. The sort of campaign a democrat running against Pombo, or anyone like him, ought to look at.
From the press release:
To the People of the four counties of the 11th Congressional District of California
and their media representatives:
My name is Paul N. “Pete” McCloskey, Jr. I seek the Republican nomination to the U.S. House of Representatives from the 11th Congressional District of California.
You are entitled to view with skepticism why a 78 year old retired farmer and attorney from Yolo County would move 90 miles to San Joaquin County in order to challenge incumbent Congressman Richard Pombo of Tracy.
As a fourth generation Californian Republican, who served for 15 years in the Congress, in military or civilian service under ten presidents from 1945 until 2000 and during three wars, I feel strongly that the Republican Party needs to return to traditional values of honesty, high ethical principles, fiscal responsibility and a reasonable balance between economic progress and environmental protection. My wife and I have moved to Lodi because we feel that Congressman Pombo, by reason of his voting record and close ties to Indian Gaming Lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, has become an embarrassment to the Republican Party.
It is not comforting to have Congressman Pombo named as one of the thirteen most corrupt Members of Congress.
The issues are those of ethics, honesty, influence by big money lobbyists, and the historic Republican principles of fiscal responsibility, limited government and environmental balance.
If you have followed Congressman Pombo’s record over the past several years, you have noted, following years of a budget surplus under a Democrat administration, he has walked us lock-step with so-called conservative Republicans into projected deficits in the trillions of dollars. The Government is substantially larger than it was five years ago. The number of lobbyists inside the Beltway has more than doubled and the DeLay/K Street Project and the activities of Jack Abramoff have threatened the indictments of a number of Republicans, inside the Administration and in Congress. Many chief executive officers of our largest corporations and largest Republican contributors continue to plead guilty to serious crimes.
Mr. Pombo has supported a $400 million Alaskan “Bridge to Nowhere” but failed to obtain significant funding for easing perhaps the biggest problem in the 11th District, federal Highways 580 and 205.
If there were four values Republicans have historically treasured, they have been honesty and fiscal responsibility, limited government and environmental protection.
The Revolt of the Elders
A year ago, Congressman Pombo joined with Mr. Doolittle and other House leaders to change the ethics rules of the House of Representatives to protect Majority Leader Tom DeLay from further investigation. DeLay had been admonished three times by the bi-partisan Committee on Official Standards for abuse of power or other misconduct. The Speaker fired the Committee chairman and those who had voted to admonish DeLay, replacing them with known DeLay loyalists. The Committee was obviously intended to be immobilized.
As a result, former Assistant Secretary of HEW, Lewis Butler and I organized the “Revolt of the Elders,” originally made up of former Republican Members of Congress or of past Administrations. We initiated three letters to Speaker Hastert, respectfully requesting that Republicans meet the promise of the 1994 “Contract With America” which specifically provided for strong ethics rules and enforcement, following forty years of Democrat control and considerable corruption.
In your press packet this morning, I have included those three letters dated January 31, March 17 and April 13, 2005. We received no response from Speaker Hastert, but the last letter from 10 former Congressmen of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s was leaked to the New York Times. The resulting public outcry caused the Speaker to almost-immediately reinstate several of the old rules. Happily the Press still has an impact on elected politicians.
Since April, however, the new Republican Chairman of the Ethics Committee has done nothing to even investigate the ever-growing scandals surrounding Jack Abramoff and his Indian gaming clients. Two of those scandals, the sweatshops in the Mariana Islands (Saipan) and Indian gambling casinos, come squarely within Chairman Pombo’s jurisdiction, yet he has steadfastly refused to hold committee hearings to unravel the effects of Abramoff’s influence.
Go read the whole thing
Of particular note, from further down in the release: I will work to achieve a verifiable paper trail for computer voting (H.R. 550) and I will seriously consider alternative forms of public financing of congressional elections as a cheaper alternative to having our laws being passed at the behest of big money lobbyists.
McCloskey was one of the people who helped create Earth Day, the Endangered Species Act came out of his committee and he, and his wife, have worked to move private lands into public trusts; recently moving 3o acres of their own into a trust on the Cache Creek.
He's not perfect, but he seems to understand the balance which must be struck on all sorts of issues (if you look at his press release the easiest thing to say is, he hasn't drunk the kool-aid. He thinks what wrong with the Republican Party is being drunk on power, comparing his time in office (when it was Democrats being indicted and convicted, to now, when it's Republicans).
It's a ray of hope. Almost makes me wish I lived in the 11th District.
Today I find he has a challenger, someone who wants to take over the seat he has been sullying in the House of Representatives.
A republican.
A former Member of the House.
Pete McCloskey.
McCloskey is charging out of the gate with a campaign which ought to make a Democrat proud. The sort of campaign a democrat running against Pombo, or anyone like him, ought to look at.
From the press release:
To the People of the four counties of the 11th Congressional District of California
and their media representatives:
My name is Paul N. “Pete” McCloskey, Jr. I seek the Republican nomination to the U.S. House of Representatives from the 11th Congressional District of California.
You are entitled to view with skepticism why a 78 year old retired farmer and attorney from Yolo County would move 90 miles to San Joaquin County in order to challenge incumbent Congressman Richard Pombo of Tracy.
As a fourth generation Californian Republican, who served for 15 years in the Congress, in military or civilian service under ten presidents from 1945 until 2000 and during three wars, I feel strongly that the Republican Party needs to return to traditional values of honesty, high ethical principles, fiscal responsibility and a reasonable balance between economic progress and environmental protection. My wife and I have moved to Lodi because we feel that Congressman Pombo, by reason of his voting record and close ties to Indian Gaming Lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, has become an embarrassment to the Republican Party.
It is not comforting to have Congressman Pombo named as one of the thirteen most corrupt Members of Congress.
The issues are those of ethics, honesty, influence by big money lobbyists, and the historic Republican principles of fiscal responsibility, limited government and environmental balance.
If you have followed Congressman Pombo’s record over the past several years, you have noted, following years of a budget surplus under a Democrat administration, he has walked us lock-step with so-called conservative Republicans into projected deficits in the trillions of dollars. The Government is substantially larger than it was five years ago. The number of lobbyists inside the Beltway has more than doubled and the DeLay/K Street Project and the activities of Jack Abramoff have threatened the indictments of a number of Republicans, inside the Administration and in Congress. Many chief executive officers of our largest corporations and largest Republican contributors continue to plead guilty to serious crimes.
Mr. Pombo has supported a $400 million Alaskan “Bridge to Nowhere” but failed to obtain significant funding for easing perhaps the biggest problem in the 11th District, federal Highways 580 and 205.
If there were four values Republicans have historically treasured, they have been honesty and fiscal responsibility, limited government and environmental protection.
The Revolt of the Elders
A year ago, Congressman Pombo joined with Mr. Doolittle and other House leaders to change the ethics rules of the House of Representatives to protect Majority Leader Tom DeLay from further investigation. DeLay had been admonished three times by the bi-partisan Committee on Official Standards for abuse of power or other misconduct. The Speaker fired the Committee chairman and those who had voted to admonish DeLay, replacing them with known DeLay loyalists. The Committee was obviously intended to be immobilized.
As a result, former Assistant Secretary of HEW, Lewis Butler and I organized the “Revolt of the Elders,” originally made up of former Republican Members of Congress or of past Administrations. We initiated three letters to Speaker Hastert, respectfully requesting that Republicans meet the promise of the 1994 “Contract With America” which specifically provided for strong ethics rules and enforcement, following forty years of Democrat control and considerable corruption.
In your press packet this morning, I have included those three letters dated January 31, March 17 and April 13, 2005. We received no response from Speaker Hastert, but the last letter from 10 former Congressmen of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s was leaked to the New York Times. The resulting public outcry caused the Speaker to almost-immediately reinstate several of the old rules. Happily the Press still has an impact on elected politicians.
Since April, however, the new Republican Chairman of the Ethics Committee has done nothing to even investigate the ever-growing scandals surrounding Jack Abramoff and his Indian gaming clients. Two of those scandals, the sweatshops in the Mariana Islands (Saipan) and Indian gambling casinos, come squarely within Chairman Pombo’s jurisdiction, yet he has steadfastly refused to hold committee hearings to unravel the effects of Abramoff’s influence.
Go read the whole thing
Of particular note, from further down in the release: I will work to achieve a verifiable paper trail for computer voting (H.R. 550) and I will seriously consider alternative forms of public financing of congressional elections as a cheaper alternative to having our laws being passed at the behest of big money lobbyists.
McCloskey was one of the people who helped create Earth Day, the Endangered Species Act came out of his committee and he, and his wife, have worked to move private lands into public trusts; recently moving 3o acres of their own into a trust on the Cache Creek.
He's not perfect, but he seems to understand the balance which must be struck on all sorts of issues (if you look at his press release the easiest thing to say is, he hasn't drunk the kool-aid. He thinks what wrong with the Republican Party is being drunk on power, comparing his time in office (when it was Democrats being indicted and convicted, to now, when it's Republicans).
It's a ray of hope. Almost makes me wish I lived in the 11th District.
