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September 26, 2008 - 9:32am
News
Brown and McClintock have impromptu radio debate
By Ben van der Meer, PolitickerCA.com Senior ReporterCongressional opponents Tom McClintock and Charlie Brown squared off in a debate of sorts Thursday, when Brown called into a Sacramento radio show where McClintock, a Republican state senator from Thousand Oaks, was a guest.
Show host Eric Hogue acted as an impromptu moderator for the 20-minute "debate" in which the two 4th Congressional District candidates sparred on issues both personal and political.
After McClintock expressed skepticism about the Wall Street bailout package being negotiated in Congress, Brown changed the subject to his appearance at a 2005 anti-war protest in Sacramento.
McClintock's campaign has maintained that Brown attended in military uniform; Brown said on the program that he was there in blue jeans and a red shirt, and then criticized McClintock's votes as a state legislator on bills related to veterans.
"You got quoted early on that this is your 28th campaign for office," said Brown, a Roseville Democrat and retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel. "Directly attacking an opponent's integrity and patriotism, there's something terribly wrong with that."
McClintock responded that it was Brown's judgment, not patriotism, that was in question when he went to the home where a replica of a soldier was hung in effigy in 2005.
"But the most important thing is, when our kids are in harms way, I'm there to back them with everything they need to get their job done just as quickly as possible," McClintock said.
Brown and McClintock also sparred over whether former U.S. Rep. Doug Ose (R-Sacramento), who had opposed McClintock in the primary, had said he supported Brown's work and views on veterans' issues. Since the primary, Ose has endorsed McClintock, as Hogue pointed out.
McClintock said Brown was not being truthful about support Brown received from Ose.
"For you to say his comments were in support of you is ludicrous," he said.
Brown then quoted Ose speaking at a debate with McClintock in May, then added, "Facts are funny things. It's out there, it's in the public record."
The candidates also disagreed on energy issues, with Brown saying he wants to see more emphasis on alternative energy and McClintock saying Brown doesn't understand energy issues or the need to expand offshore oil drilling.
McClintock pointed out that oil prices began dropping after President Bush announced he was lifting an executive moratorium on oil drilling. "You don't seem to understand that current prices reflect future expectations," he said.
Brown countered that even the U.S. military is moving toward using alternative energy. "The effort is out there, it's ongoing and I fully stand behind it," he said. "It's a question of getting the tax incentives out there."
McClintock questioned why Brown didn't support the Auburn Dam, a long-proposed project that McClintock said would provide cheap hydroelectric energy and flood protection.
"Cheap electricity, plentiful water, solid flood protection, and we've been denied that because of opposition from radicals like you," McClintock said.
Brown said the Auburn Dam was a 41-year-old project that hasn't been built and would be more expensive and less productive than other alternative energy concepts. McClintock said it hasn't been built because of opposition from people like Brown, not because it wouldn't make sense.
Hogue then allowed each man to give brief closing remarks on the topic of what the biggest issue was in the race.
Brown said he'd lived in the district, raised a family there and knew the district's issues. "We need to do the projects that are actually going to benefit Northern California, the ones I'm directly aware of and have been working with people on for the last three years," he said.
The economy is the biggest issue, McClintock said. Business groups and individuals have supported him because they recognize that the next Congress is going to decide many important issues, he said.
"Whether we are going to see more burdens, more regulations, more taxes heaped upon us, or whether we're going to restore those fundamental principles of individual freedom and limited government, upon which our government is based," McClintock said, describing the choice he believes voters face.
Both McClintock and Brown have said they want to debate, but have so far been unable to agree on the details. The two men will participate in a candidates forum on Oct. 10 in Quincy.
Syndicate
Battersea, talk coherently
If anyone can interpret what Battersea is saying, I sure would appreciate some insight into what the heck he is talking about.
Bud Lee
Ding dong the Constitution's dead.
Then the conversation is over. After a ruling in the gold clause cases in the mid-1930s, Justice James McReynolds was alleged to have said that the Constitution is gone and that shame and humliiation was upon us. FDR did not save us from Depression for it was the noise of war in Europe that got the USA off of its feet. Charlie's nostrums for America today will not solve our problems and can never be found in the Constitution, but as I have said, it has been dead for over half a century. For Charlie it's from each according to his ability; to each according to his need.
Enslaving, Auburn Dam, etc.
Battersea, I'll leave your first point to others' evaluation since I cannot comprehend whatever point it is you're trying to make, unless you believe that our system of mortgaging houses is a result of too much government regulation, which is probably the exact opposite of what is currently happening.
If you don't know the difference between a bridge and a dam, then I can't help you.
Your concluding comments speak for themselves and I will let other AJ readers draw their own conclusions.
Bud Lee
Some thoughts
As for the point of slavery, do you own your own home? If so, you don't because the government has put a yearly lien on your house called a property tax. In reality they own your home. Government has increased over the years by the addition of numerous agencies that have cropped up to address the needs of our people to a point where they have access to almost every aspect of our lives. Wasn't there something in our Declaration of Independence that talked about a multitude of offices? It is an old axiom that a government that gives everything to you can also take it away inlcuding your freedom.
The Auburn Dam can built with great safety without numerous lawsuits to bog it down for decades. If the new Bay Bridge can be engineered to withstand earthquakes so can the dam.
Who says that Charlie Brown is corrupt? My point was that being a veteran does not shield one from the allure of money flowing out of Washington. There is always talk about "special interest" which seems to be a buzzword that only applies to Republicans. Democrats have their own money guys on K Street as well. I think Obama got the most money from Goldman Sachs, that is a real grass roots organization
Having Charlie promise everything from free healthcare to increased education in a time of austerity is naive at best. As someone said in another thread, the family structure has deterioated over the past half century, the churches are reduced to their own walls through ridicule and being labelled anachronisms so people now will turn to the government for deliverance. You think that we in America are immune from the calamities that have plagued the rest of the world? If we don't humbled ourselves before God, then the glory is gone from our nation.
Battersea, "enslaving"?
Battersea, we all know the tactics of hyperbole to make a point by exaggerating your rhetoric, but "enslaving"?? Really? Don't you realize you harm your own credibility by using such outlandish gibberish?
And we should build the Auburn Dam on a seismic fault line because ... again, why?
And Charlie Brown is corrupt? Like Duke Cunningham? Who are you trying to fool? The only person willing to believe that totally unsubstantiated claim is you -- and I bet you don't believe it either.
If you have something thoughtful and cogent, please share it with us so we can have the benefit of what you really think.
Bud Lee
Tom v. Charlie
Linda:
You must think that Tom is an ignorant baboon. In this day and age of information technology, anybody can find out a lot about the district in a short period of time. He also has made great efforts to travel from Orangevale to Alturas to get input from people in the district. He is going to offer solutions to our crises that not everybody is going to like. We have long taken rides on the gravy train and the ride is over. You think Chralie Brown is going to deliver the moon and stars for you? Why don't you ask him if he is committed to putting a bunch of windmills on the crests of the Sierra that will encounter strong oppostion from the environmentalists. Are you going to buy his solar nonsense where its potential will be next to zero during the wintertime due to snow in the mountains and dense fog in the valleys.
So there was an earthquake at Oroville Dam, do you propose to tear that edifice down to safeguard us? While we are at it, let's tear out the Diablo Canyon Nuclear plant and drain Hetch Hetchy. You talk about career politicians. Your area of the country has had nothing but career politicians-Bizz Johnson, Norman Shumway and now John Doolittle. Tom is not "crusin around for a paycheck." Do you know his motives? Are you willing to stand for a man that tells it like it is and not elect somebody that masks his enslaving agenda behind his military service. Being a veteran does not make one impervious to corruption. The case of Duke Cunningham makes that point obvious.
brown Vs mclintock
The reason the Auburn dam didn't get built, after it was going on full scale in 1975 was that there was an earthquake that caused a stress fracture in the Oroville dam and as a result the Auburn dam was suspended. After it was determined that if a dam was to be built it would have to be concrete and much smaller, the whole project was scrapped due to cost effectiveness.It had nothing to do with politics just geology. Another reason not to vote for a Southern California life long politician cruisin for another government paycheck, he doesn't know crap about us.
Poor Charlie Brown
I heard the debate online after the fact. Brown struck me as genuinely and righteously angry, but also as a poor speaker who was not prepared. McClintock is a seasoned veteran who will no doubt wipe the floor with Brown come debate time. I can't wait.
As for the issues, McClintock definitely has a better handle on them and would represent the voters of the 4th CD better. Don't get me wrong, I wish Brown well.
But in retirement.
McClintock making stuff up
Tom The Venturian Candidate McClintock is parroting the Doolittle drivel about Charlie being "in uniform" at an anti-Iraq War rally. I'm not surprised since he has never worn the uniform of our military services, so he may be easily duped.
Let's set the record straight -- ask anyone who has been in the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines if they put on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and wore a fatigue jacket and boonie hat for cover if they were "in uniform" and they would all tell you "NO"! It's ludicrous to think that a former member of the military would consider themselves "in uniform" dressed that way and that is why Charlie is quoted as saying he was "not in uniform." The Venturian Candidate can have as many former and current military officers point at the jacket and say he is in uniform but that doesn't make it so. McClintock's obsession with this trumped-up issue shows the shallowness of his policy depth because he doesn't have much else to work with, except the warmed-over and defunct arguments for the earthquake-prone Auburn Dam. Whose brainchild was it to propose building it on an earthquake fault?
Bud Lee
Great Logic
Mike- You are a real genius. If there is a Democrat Majority- we should send another ultra liberal to be a part of the problem in Congress.
What congress needs in a real kick in the pants with a no nonsense conservative who does what he says and is transparent. Someone who will be part of the solution and not another tax and spend big government Liberal.
Frankly, someone who we can trust… Someone who has not lied over and over about who he is and what he believes. We need Tom McClintock.
The next Congress.
Let's get real.
The next Congress will be even more Democratic then the current Congress is.
What power will a Freshman Republican have as a super minority?
The carpetbagger McClintock says that the economy is the biggest issue. The de-regulating Republicans have brought us to this economic failure. Another ethically challenged professional politician isn't going to fix it.
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