Meet the Next In Line to the Chair of the Ways and Means Committee

Good grief, we may want the crooked Charlie Rangel back.

Politico reported:

California Rep. Pete Stark sounds like an ethics investigator’s worst nightmare.

Stark, the second-ranking Ways and Means Committee Democrat, was “extremely belligerent” toward interviewers from the Office of Congressional Ethics last year, insulted the staff members who came to interview him and had a video camera in his office during the session, according to a recently released report.

At issue was whether Stark had inappropriately applied for a homestead tax exemption in Maryland even though his official residence is in California, according to the report. Stark was later cleared by the ethics committee, but only after the bizarre encounter in his office last summer.

When the Office of Congressional Ethics staff came to Stark’s second-floor Cannon office in July 2009, investigators noticed a video camera recording — but Stark had not informed the interviewers that he had the camera running.

As the interview went on, Stark was contradictory in his answers to the investigators from the OCE, which is an outside congressional office and does not have the same power as the House ethics committee.

[He was belligerent, and it gets worse!]

tark has a history of unusual behavior, but the latest episode is significant because he is in line for the powerful Ways and Means Committee chairmanship should Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) have to step aside because of his own ethics issues.

Stark also has a history of eccentric statements, including an infamous line in 2007 about the Iraq war, in which he accused Republicans of sending soldiers “to get their heads blown off for the president’s amusement.” He also called Republicans “chicken hawks” who denied children health care.

In case you’ve forgotten, this is the same Pete Stark that told a constituent “I wouldn’t dignify you by peeing on your leg. It wouldn’t be worth wasting the urine.” Just in case you missed it, here’s the video.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 2:04 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.