Fortney (“Pete”) Stark, Congressman from Fremont in the East Frisco Bay, threw a bodacious tantrum during the debate over the Iraq resolution yesterday, calling the President a liar, a sweater-wearer, and a draft-dodger, and even going so low as to invoke the name of Molly Ivins, the Barbra Streisand of Texas journalism. It was such an embarassing display of stupidity (Fortney said that the rich pay no taxes at all) that he was admonished by the chair as soon as he shut up. But to read the Bay Area papers, you’d hardly know that the dapper Fortney was even there. Only the Chronicle referred to his remarks at all, and they were very selective about them:
Rep. Pete Stark, D-Fremont: “The bitter truth is I don’t believe the president and his advisers.
“Let us not forget that our president – our commander in chief — has no experience with, or knowledge of, war. In fact, he admits that he was at best ambivalent about the Vietnam War. He skirted his own military service and then failed to serve out his time in the National Guard.
“The president thinks that foreign territory is the other team’s dugout and that Kashmir is a sweater.” .
Stark is the fellow who tried to start a fist-fight with J. C. Watts last year, calling him a deadbeat with several out-of-wedlock kids. Given that Fortney is a feeble septegenarian who wasn’t much more than a dandy in his prime, and Watts is a former OU Wishbone quarterback, Stark isn’t just a venal liar, he’s stupid.