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Stark Gets Snippy With National Guard Constituent

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

WASHINGTON — When Daniel Dow of California faxed a protest letter to his congressman over his vote last week against a House resolution condemning the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, he expected to get a form letter a month later.

Instead, Dow's representative, Bay Area Democrat Pete Stark (search), responded by voice mail within an hour. The message went as follows:

"Dan, this is Congressman Pete Stark, and I just got your fax. And you don't know what you're talking about. So if you care about enlisted people, you wouldn't have voted for that thing either. But probably somebody put you up to this, and I'm not sure who it was, but I doubt if you could spell half the words in the letter, and somebody wrote it for you. So I don't pay much attention to it. But I'll call you back later and let you tell me more about why you think you're such a great goddamn hero and why you think that [these] generals and the Defense Department, who forced these poor enlisted guys to do what they did, shouldn't be held to account. That's the issue. So if you want to stick it to a bunch of enlisted guys, have it your way. But if you want to get to the bottom of people who forced this awful program in Iraq, then you should understand more about it than you obviously do. Thanks."

The letter from Dow, a staff sergeant in the National Guard (search), was certainly provocative, but Dow said he was completely surprised by the response.

"I was shocked. My wife saw the expression on my face as I was listening to it and asked me who it was from, and I said you will never believe it, it's from Congressman Stark," he said. "To have that kind of an attack at me just for expressing my opinion on an issue was really a shock and so I'd rather be represented, no matter what political party they are, by someone who can represent us with dignity and pride and distinction rather than, you know, attacking members of their own locale."

"Retreat, hell! We just got here!"-Captain Lloyd Williams, 2nd Marine Division, Belleau Wood, France, WWI