Mr. Roboto Is in the House
Roll Call Staff
Mr. Roboto Is in the House. In a move that left those of a certain age longing for the days of big hair and “parachute” pants, House Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) was spotted Wednesday giving a tour of the Capitol to three members of the 1980s rock band Styx.
Styx, which pumped out such dashboard classics as “Mr. Roboto” and “Babe,” was in town for a joint concert last night at the MCI Center with two other bands from the same bygone era: Journey and REO Speedwagon.
“Congressman Cantor gave the band a tour because ever since he popped in his cassette of ‘Come Sail Away’ and asked Mrs. Cantor to ‘Be his lady,’ his life has been ‘The Best of Times,’” quipped spokesman Rob Collins.
Bo Knows Fistfights. After taking it on the chin from fellow conservatives at Grover Norquist’s weekly policy meeting last week, Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-Minn.) is now beating back broadsides from ex-New York City cop Bo Dietl.
Dietl, the fast-talking security consultant who’s a zany guest on Don Imus’ radio show, took his act to Capitol Hill Wednesday to appear at a press conference blasting Gutknecht’s bill that would allow reimportation of pharmaceuticals from Canada.
“I’ll fight him anywhere, anytime he wants,” Dietl chortled. “I call him a liar. Print that!
“And if he has a problem with that, I’ll debate him anywhere,” Dietl said, including “in the parking lot back here.”
Dietl disputed a claim that Gutknecht backers made in a “Dear Colleague” letter that the bill would not permit a wave of counterfeit drugs to invade the United States.
“I’m calling [Gutknecht] a liar,” Dietl said. “Make that liar with a capital ‘L.’”
Dietl claimed that an investigation by his firm found some drugs ostensibly ordered over the Web from Canada were actually traced to Pakistan and the Caribbean. “It’s not just cheap drugs, it’s a safety issue,” he said.
Dietl, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1986, also ruled out another bid at office. “I would not run for dogcatcher,” he said. “I’d rather be a person who talks the way I talk and do what I’ve got to do. If anybody I called a liar would like to debate me or like to put a lawsuit on me, I challenge it.”
Gutknecht spokesman Bryan Anderson questioned Dietl’s credentials as an alleged expert on the issue and said his boss isn’t going to bother responding to the former detective.
“Anybody on the street corner can make some sort of claim,” Anderson said. “That’s his right to comment on the issue. But beyond that, there’s no necessity to dignify his remarks” with a response.
Stark Raving Mad. Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), who helped pour gasoline on last week’s Ways and Means fracas with some outlandish statements, is locked in yet another battle with his GOP colleagues.
Stark’s mouth has already gotten him in trouble, starting with the time he called Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.) a “whore” for the insurance industry several years ago. And he nearly sparked fistfights by once alleging that then-Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) had several illegitimate children and then calling Rep. Scott McInnis (R-Colo.) a “fruitcake” last week.
But now Stark’s pen has raised red flags. He crafted a parody of a pharmaceutical industry ad, which has run in newspapers such as Roll Call, claiming the drug reimportation legislation will expose Americans to unsafe drugs. The original ad shows two indistinguishable pills and asks which one is unsafe.
Stark’s “Dear Colleague” letter showed a photo of lawmakers on the House floor and cracked, “Which Republican hasn’t been tampered with?” That parody made it through the handlers at First Call, the office which distributes “Dear Colleague” letters.
But then Stark crafted a second “Dear Colleague” showing a photo of a doughnut and claimed, “100 percent of seniors get a hole in their drug benefit, but 0 percent of the drug industry will have a hole in their profits.” The ad also changed the name of PhRMA to the “Privatization and Republican Medicine Association.”
The second letter was bounced back to Stark and an official at First Call, which is run by the Chief Administrative Officer, informed the Congressman’s office, “We’ve been told to hold Stark ‘Dear Colleagues’ like this.”
A Stark aide told HOH that was unfair. “No one yet has given us written rules suggesting this is outside the bounds of Member-to-Member communication,” the staffer said. “They are clear parodies that make a point.”
But Brian Walsh, majority spokesman for the House Administration Committee, which oversees the CAO’s office, noted that both Democrats and Republicans on the panel decided that Stark’s second letter was inappropriate.
“Under Committee rules, official resources, including the distribution of official documents, are not to be used for partisan, political purposes,” Walsh told HOH. “Congressman Stark’s ‘Dear Colleague’ was reviewed by both the majority and minority of the Committee and a bipartisan decision was made that this particular letter crossed that threshold and should not be distributed using official House resources.”
Ross: Americans Confused About Reform
March 8, 12 a.m.
My hometown of Prescott is a small community in southwestern Arkansas with about 3,700 people. It’s a quiet and cordial town where people still know their neighbor’s name, still say “hello” to one another in the grocery store and still help one another out when times are tough. And times certainly are tough. Read Full Article
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