( Republican Rep. ) Pombo faces one tough opponent

[Judi Lynn]

Pombo faces one tough opponent
Hank Shaw
Capitol Bureau Chief
Published Monday, May 15, 2006

STOCKTON - Sara Blicharz and Francine Smith represent the yin and yang of maverick Republican Paul N. "Pete" McCloskey's campaign to unseat Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy.

McCloskey moved to Lodi earlier this year to challenge the 14-year incumbent. He says he's appalled at what has happened to the GOP leadership in Washington and is angered about Pombo's quest to overhaul the Endangered Species Act.

Pombo faces his toughest election bid since he took office. Some say McCloskey, a former congressman from the Bay Area, could be the one to unseat him. Voters will decide who wins the nomination June 6.

McCloskey found Smith at San Joaquin Delta College's Delta Day.
(snip/...)

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060515/NEWS01/605150326/1001



Democratic Challenger, Pete McCloskey (:woohoo:), Republican Rep. Richard Pombo.

[Binka]

1. Pombo Is A Fat Bloated Pig

Kick his nasty lard ass :kick: Pete!

[bluestateguy]

2. Looks like Pombo has made a few too many trips to the buffet

nt

[Greeby]

3. Umm McCloskey, just to point out, is a Republican

Although he's nothing like what we think of as Republican

[Judi Lynn]

9. He has always seemed too well-balanced to be a Republican!

Too level headed, to above board, too direct, too decent. It was easy to imagine otherwise of him.

Thanks for setting the record straight. I have a feeling I've confused him with another older, spunky, terrific Congressman named Pete, who IS a Democrat.

I just found out who I've confused with him: California Democrat PETE STARK, who was involved as one of the Democrats locked out of a vote, a TREMENDOUS Democrat:


Young and older Pete Stark, California DEMOCRATIC Representative

And in the latest example of Republican ruthlessness, when House Democrats stormed out of a Ways and Means Committee session, the panel's chairman called in the Capitol Police to arrest them. In typical GOP stealth fashion, the Republicans were trying to sneak through an alternate version of a hefty $10 billion pension bill that they substituted in the dead of the night for the original bill under consideration. The Democrats complained that they weren't given adequate time to review the new bill when committee chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA) demanded action, although there was no pressing need to rush the bill. Most of the Democrats moved to a nearby library to plot strategy after they demanded that Republicans read the legislation line by line, leaving Pete Stark (D-CA) behind to prevent the Republicans from obtaining unanimous consent to dispense with the reading. Thomas tried to stop the reading anyway, and Stark objected. Thomas told him he was "too late", and ignored his request for a parliamentary review as well. Thomas called for a vote and the bill was passed without a single Democrat voting. Apparently some name-calling was involved, something to do with a fruitcake. Not content with his legislative coup and apparently so intimidated by the 71 year old Stark, the infuriated Thomas instructed the Capitol Police to remove the Democrats from the nearby library, saying the Democrats were being disorderly and did not have the right to occupy the library.
(snip)

http://www.literalpolitics.com/NewsDay/newsdayaug03.htm

[brentspeak]

10. He's an Eisenhower Republican

ergo, one of the decent Republicans.

[nicknameless]

4. McCloskey's "For Congress" webpage lists a lot of dirt on Pombo.

http://www.petemccloskey.com

Why Retire Pombo?

• Pombo has been named by non-partisan watchdog groups as:

"One of the 13 most corrupt members of Congress"-COMMITTEE FOR RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS IN WASHINGTON (CREW)

"One of the first six inductees to the Congressional Hall of Shame" - PUBLIC CITIZEN

• Richard Pombo is among the top recipients of money from admitted felon and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates. (Source: Time)

• Pombo owes his chairmanship of the House Resources Committee to indicted former majority leader Tom DeLay. Pombo, who votes in lockstep with DeLay 92% of the time, actively tried to change House Ethics Rules to protect DeLay (House Resolution 5) and donated thousands of dollars to the DeLay legal defense fund.

• Pombo used his official powers to protect a large donor, Charles Hurwitz, thwarting a Federal investigation in what federal regulators called, "a seamy abuse of the legislative process." (Source: LA Times 1/8/06)

• At a time when the average yearly income in San Joaquin County is $20,682, Pombo has funneled over half-a-million dollars in campaign funds to his wife and brother. As Chairman of the House Resources Committee (which oversees Native American affairs), Pombo has received over $500,000 in donations from Indian tribes, many with ties to Abramoff.

• He has joined DeLay in voting to absolve the manufacturers of the toxic gasoline additive MTBE from any responsibility for cleaning up an estimated $20 billion worth of polluted water in Northern California -water that our entire state needs for agriculture and economic growth.

• Pombo, a member of the congressional leadership, has helped move us from budget surpluses in 2000 to trillion-dollar deficits.

• Pombo, who never served in the military, claims to support our troops but has repeatedly voted against VA and health care benefits for returning veterans, including prosthesis research for amputees (House Resolutions 1815, 2528, 1268, 27, HconRes 95 and HJRes 107).

• Though his district has higher than national average gas prices, Pombo supported giving $8.6 billion in tax subsidies to oil and gas companies (House Resolution 6). It's no surprise that Pombo's largest political donations come from these same companies.

[xchrom]

5. i'd be here all day if i tried to finds for my hate and loathing

of pombo.

[jamesinca]

6. McCloskey helped write the Endangered Species Act

If I remember correctly, this has been his biggest motivator to get Pombo out. Pombo is one of the most anti-environment members of congress out there.

Pombo says it is property rights. Individuals should be able to do on their property what ever they want to do because of property rights. The consequences be damned, property rights are the most important according to Pombo. So important Pombo felt the need to lie to Congress about it.

Also if I remember correctly, Pombo is a real estate/developer type. He was sick and tired of having to pay fees for environmental studies and being told no on projects because it would do a great harm to the environment.

This is how I put it together, I call it greed and self serving, Pombo says it is property rights. He buys the land, pays no fees for environmental impact reports, is never denied a building permit and puts in a strip mall on his land, with his property rights. He has reduced up front fees and building cost. He turns a profit sooner on his strip mall property that he is renting out. I really don't think he cares about property rights, I think he cares about turing a profit for himself. The sooner and the more, the better in his mind.

[Gormy Cuss]

7. Yes and yes

I heard McCloskey speak in March and he mentioned the Endangers Species Act specifically.

The lead-in article makes it sound like McCloskey is a major leagues carpetbagger because he moved from the Bay area to Lodi, but he moved from Fremont -- Pombo's district starts about ten miles east of Fremont in the San Ramon Valley.

Pombo calls himself a rancher but his family does owe much of its wealth to real estate dealings.
He is all about unfettered development rights.

[WhiteTara]

8. he charged us (the taxpayers) for his summer

vacation to all the national parks and then chose which ones to sell. He is such scum.

[sofa king]

11. Pombo's been instrumental in covering up for the GOP

In addition to wrecking the Engangered Species Act, there is a subtle but equally important charge to be made against Richard Pombo. If any daylight is ever to be shed on the true extent of the GOP criminal enterprise, the cracks are going to first appear in the realm of Indian affairs. The American public is almost completely disinterested in our native peoples, so the criminal activity there is closer to the surface than anywhere else--witness Jack Abramoff.

It's Richard Pombo's job to make sure that the rest of that sordid tale does not come to light, and he has done it splendidly.

In his capacity as Chairman of the House Resources Committee, I claim that Rep. Pombo has presided over ignoring and covering up the numerous criminal activities related to the exploitation of American Indian tribes. He has blithely ignored insider lobbyist influence which revoked and suspended the Department of the Interior's land-into-trust regulations, further politicized the federal recognition process and swept the Indian trust fund debacle under the rug for yet another half-decade--all the while feigning outrage and a determination to get to the bottom of the story.

There's a pretty simple reason for that: closer examination of any one of those stories would reveal a systematic pillaging of the remaining wealth of our nation's aboriginal peoples with the acquiescence of the federal government and specifically the Republican party. It's been Richard Pombo's job to conceal that pillaging from the public, and he's done an exceptional job of it.

[dbackjon]

12. I may just have to donate to McCluskey

Pombo is #1 on my wish list to remove from office.