This is from
Politics and Sausage, the campaign blog of
Bruderly for Congress ...
"I conducted an interview with Florida Rep. Cliff Stearns, a Republican and staunch member of the religious right. At the time, Stearns was proposing a law to jail any scientist who attempted to make a human embryo through cloning. He opposed cloning and embryonic stem-cell research, he said, because clones would not have "tentacles" like you and me and we'd wind up with "categories of people who didn't have these tentacles, so there might be superior and inferior people. If you met them and knew they were cloned, how would you deal with them?"
-- Brian Alexander, Wired Magazine
So, now that the petition deadline has come and gone, it's time to talk about Stearnsapalooza. Marty, who is working with us in Clay and Duval, joined me last Saturday, as we followed Cliff Stearns throughout North Florida, before a great fundraiser for Alex Sink in Orange Park.
STARKE -- Let's begin at the beginning. The first meeting was in Starke, at the Bradford County Courthouse. As the sun came up in the eastern sky, it began to dawn on me what one of the bigger issues, if not the biggest issues in this campaign will be.
Immigration.
Thanks to the fear mongering of talk-show hosts, propped up by the regular media, every person in the room had an opinion on the subject. As we can tell from today's protests, Starke wasn't alone.
Let's get this part straight: Immigration is a VERY difficult issue because there are so many smaller issues wrapped around it. I don't know what the solution is, but I can tell you this. Sealing the borders isn't the solution because they are ALREADY sealed. At a MINIMUM, we need to enforce the laws we have right now.
I can also tell you this. As with so many issues in our world today, when someone starts a discussion with, "I'm going to make it simple," as Cliff Stearns did, you can be sure they're going to follow it with a line of crap. Very few issues in this nation anymore are "simple."
Stearns talked a House bill he voted for, knowing that NO ONE expected to get through the Senate. Lo and behold, it didn't.
What a courageous stand.
Meanwhile, he continued to gripe and moan about how many illegals were coming across the border, but other than a "wall" which he gave no details on, he had NO solutions. He just continued to incite the fear of the people in the room.
That is what the Rubberstamp wing of the Republican party is, a party that will scream bloody murder about problems that threaten our nation, create fear and distrust, then blame Democrats for not finding solutions, when they are the minority party.
After the "town" meeting, I got yelled at by an older gentleman, who said he had "figured me out," once he found out where I was from, and told me that I should "go back to Gainesville." As a third-generation Floridian and a Buchholz grad, I am proud to be from Florida and proud to live in Gainesville... alas.. it was on to....
MIDDLEBURG -- Surprisingly, everyone at this meeting talked about immigration. Stearns mongered some more fear, all his supporters talked about how Mexicans are taking their jobs, Mexicans are costing them tax dollars, illegal immigration is an invasion and we should take military action.
All this is great rhetoric, and I'm sure it makes people feel good to unleash some of their pent-up fear, but we are talking about 11 million people. Cliches and testosterone aren't going to get it done. We have to figure out WHY illegals come here, HOW they come here, HOW we get them to stop coming here illegally and WHAT do we do with those who are here?
Those are the questions we need answered, in a way that allows our economy to continue operating, doesn't allow racism to supercede logic and the rule of law and still maintains that rule of law throughout our nation.
Of course, all this "thought" wasn't as interesting to Cliff Stearns as was his work making sitting on your butt easier and partisan politicking.
As to the former, Cliff talked about how great it was that in 2009, because of work done by he and his "Technology" committee, people in America will not be able to use their current televisions without an adapter. Yes, Cliff is working hard to make your easy chair a safer place. Because, after all, without HDTV, the terrorists will win. After discussing the improvements in TV's, it was time to move on to how evil the loyal opposition is.
Cliff talked about not letting Democrats win the House back, saying it would result in John Conyers becoming head of the Judiciary committee. Then he mentioned a couple other Representatives who would have new leadership positions...
Before moving on to talk about another committee, which would be headed by "Democrat Homosexual Barney Frank."
Apparently Rep. Stearns doesn't believe that a fellow Congressman deserves his title. Instead, the Honorable Barney Frank, Democratic Representative from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, was referred to as "Democrat Homosexual."
So, cliff will also not get any respect. But I won't call him the "Republican Bad Hair Cut" or "The Republican Corpse" or "The Republican Blunderer" or "The Republican who had to ask his staff about almost every bill that was discussed, because he couldn't remember if he co-sponsored it" (That name would take far too long to type.)
Instead, he gets the same amount of respect he gives his contemporaries. Henceforth, it's "Rubberstamp" or "Cliff"
In Middleburg, I stood up and asked Cliff a question. I said, "You have spoken of three things here today, and I want to ask if you regret any of them. You gave thousands of dollars to Tom Delay's defense fund. You voted for Medicare Part D. You promised to limit yourself to 12 years in office, and you have served 18. If you had the chance, would you change any of that?"
Cliff responded with a pat answer to the Delay question, saying that since he had given money after another case than the one currently in question, his gift isn't part of a culture of corruption. You know what, fine, I'll accept that.
Then, he said that when he voted for Medicare Part D, the prescription drug bill, it was because the Congressional Budget Office had given him the wrong numbers. Poor Cliff and his staff were bamboozled by the CBO into believing that cost for this plan would be low and results would be high, even though it was going to create a convoluted program that retirees still don't understand.
He also said that most folks who use Medicare Part D believe it is an outstanding system, have no problems and save lots of money on their prescription drugs.
Most of that is crap, and he has blamed his staff, the OMB and Dick Cheney for his vote. Maybe it's time to show some of that "responsibility" that the conservatives treasure so much??
It was the last question whose answer drove me up the wall... In 1994, Cliff Stearns promised, orally, to uphold the Republicans "Contract with America." He even promised, in the Ocala newspaper, to limit himself to 12 years (6 terms) in office.
When presented with this information, he said, "I never signed the pledge."
So I reminded him of his oral statements.
Cliff Stearns turned to me and said, "what do you expect me to do, give up my seats on powerful committees? Should I let Ted Kennedy take them over?"
Getting past the fact that Cliff is a Congressman and Ted Kennedy is a Senator:
I EXPECT YOU TO BE A MAN OF YOUR WORD IF YOU EXPECT THE WORD "HONORABLE" IN FRONT OF YOUR NAME TO MEAN ANYTHING.
Clearly he does not. So clearly, it does not. Cliff Stearns is not a man of his word, nor is he a man of honor. It is a point of Southern pride at this point, to work against him.
Cliff Stearns told Middleburg, he told North Florida and he told America. He has no respect for anyone different from him, he has no respect for the elderly throughout our state (or he would've researched Part D, rather than spending time working on HDTV) and finally:
HE HAS NO RESPECT FOR YOU.
He knows you won't hold him to his word and vote him out, FORCING him to uphold his promise.
I'll talk about Jacksonville tomorrow. I am getting way too angry, reliving these meetings.
Got a question about Cliffy? Hit the comment button.