Not a hero anymore:
"Effort to Censure Lawmaker for a Comment Falls Short" by DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 — Representative Pete Stark, Democrat of California, escaped a censure Tuesday for incendiary remarks he made last week about President Bush and the war in Iraq.
By 196 to 173, the House voted against adopting a resolution to censure Mr. Stark, who is chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, for what he said as the House sustained Mr. Bush’s veto of a bill to expand a children’s health insurance program.
Mr. Stark told Republicans last week:
“You don’t have money to fund the war or children. But you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president’s amusement.”
The vote was along party lines, with all 196 votes against censure coming from Democrats. Last week, in the immediate fallout from his remarks, Mr. Stark did not exactly apologize.
Mr. Stark, who served in the Air Force from 1955 to 1957 and will celebrate his 76th birthday on Veterans Day:
“I have nothing but respect for our brave men and women in uniform and wish them the very best. But I respect neither the commander in chief who keeps them in harm’s way nor the chickenhawks in Congress who vote to deny children health care.”
But on the House floor on Tuesday, Mr. Stark sounded contrite as he apologized for offending his colleagues, Mr. Bush and American troops:
“I hope that with this apology I will become as insignificant as I should be, and that we can return to the issues that do divide us but that we can resolve in a better fashion.”
You are!
Bye, Pete!
