Pete Stark: A Raving Lunatic I Can Get Behind

House Republicans objected today to comments made by outspoken liberal Democratic Rep. Pete Stark of California on the Iraq war during debate on the override of President Bush's veto of the children's health program. Speaking on the House floor, Stark said, "Under the Republican plan, by 2017, we probably will have killed 20,000 soldiers in Iraq, spending $200 billion."

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) rose to protest the remark and asked that Stark's words be taken down, a formal procedure to punish a member of Congress for breaching the House's standards of decorum. The chair later ruled that Stark's comment did not refer to any specific House member and thus were appropriate.

Earlier in the SCHIP debate, Stark had made other spirited remarks. "Republicans sure don't care about finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war in Iraq. Where are you going to get that money? Are you going to tell us lies like you're telling us today? Is that how you're going to fund the war? You don't have money to fund the war on children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if he 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." Responding promptly and harshly to Stark, the National Republican Congressional Committee declared he had "trampled on the sacrifice of our troops."

Stark issued this response, "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 harms way nor the chicken hawks in Congress who vote to deny children health care."

Further evidence he is a total wackjob: Stark is the first openly nontheistic member of Congress, as announced by the Secular Coalition for America. Stark acknowledged his nontheism in response to an SCA questionnaire sent to public officials in January 2007. In a statement, Stark said he is a "Unitarian who does not believe in a supreme being. I look forward to working with the Secular Coalition to stop the promotion of narrow religious beliefs in science, marriage contracts, the military and the provision of social service. On September 20, 2007, Congressman Stark reaffirmed his atheism by making a public announcement in front of the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard, the Harvard Law School Heathen Society, and various other atheist, agnostic, secular, humanist, and nonreligious groups. (ripped from Wikipedia)