October 23, 2007

Stark Backs Down, Apologizes, Avoids Censure

Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) retreated from his stated position last week that President Bush sent American soldiers to Iraq "to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement." Reversing his position that he would not apologize, Stark offered an apology to the President, his family, and the American troops that took offense to his remarks -- and narrowly avoided a censure from his colleagues:

Republicans failed in an effort Tuesday to have the House censure Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., who said in a congressional speech last week that U.S. troops are being sent to Iraq "to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement."

Without debate, the House voted 196-173 to kill the proposal to censure Stark for "his despicable conduct." The vote was mostly along party lines, with all 168 Republicans on hand supporting the measure offered by Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. Five Democrats joined them. ...

Stark initially refused to apologize despite condemnations from GOP lawmakers and others. Moments after Tuesday's vote, however, he addressed the House to apologize to his colleagues, "to the president and his family," and to U.S. troops offended by his remarks.

"I hope that with this apology I will become as insignificant as I should be" in the continuing debates over Iraq and health care, he said. Boehner was among those who applauded.

Stark has a long history of inflammatory remarks on the House floor, and a very short history of apologies following them. Given some of the criticism from the ranks of his own party, Stark may have had to cut a deal for an apology to keep Republicans from successfully censuring him. Five Democrats voted for the measure anyway, and Nancy Pelosi publicly chastised him for the remarks shortly after the S-CHIP debate.

It seems rather sad that 196 members of Congress couldn't bring themselves to follow Pelosi's lead. One wonders what kind of remarks they would find bad enough to bring censure, a rather weak response in any case.

Posted by Ed Morrissey on October 23, 2007 10:58 AM | Comments () | TrackBacks (3)

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» Stark forced to apologize! Look for the left to seethe. from Neocon News
(h\t: Hot Air) Censure measure fails, forces Pelosi toward Stark. Awesome. Boehner introduced a censure resolution this morning knowing that the Democrats would have to kill it and symbolically line up on Stark’s side, which they did. That was enough... [Read More]

Tracked on October 23, 2007 12:31 PM

» Stark Apologizes from CALIFORNIA YANKEE
That didn't have to be so hard: California Democratic liberal-progressive loudmouth Fortney "Pete" Stark of California finally apologized for his more than abusive comments, which impugned the president's and Congress' motives and dishonored our troops... [Read More]

Tracked on October 23, 2007 1:39 PM

» Quote of the Day from Conservative Musings
I hope that with this apology I will become as insignificant as I should be - Rep. Pete Stark, (D-CA), in apologizing for his previous remarks on President Bush. Kudos to the Representative in apologizing. Sadly, his party won't be [Read More]

Tracked on October 23, 2007 5:50 PM

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Ed Morrissey has blogged at Captain's Quarters since 2003, and has a daily radio show at BlogTalkRadio, where he serves as Political Director. Called "Captain Ed" by his readers, Ed is a father and grandfather living in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, a native Californian who moved to the North Star State because of the weather.

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