The Anti-Sam Brownback Blog

When I wash new clothes for the first time, I always test the detergent on a small piece of unimportant, hidden fabric inside the clothing. If the detergent reacts badly, I wouldn’t want to ruin a part of the clothing that can be seen. I don’t care about the test patch.

Senator Sam Brownback feels much the same way about Washington DC. Whenever he latches on to a crazy idea, he loves to attempt to foist it upon DC. In his eyes, they aren’t clever enough to come up with their own ideas. They need a Kansas Senator to show them the correct way of running their city.

This time, it is a flat tax. I don’t have time at the moment to discuss the merits (or lack thereof) of a flat tax, but I do think that Brownback should not use DC as his unwanted scrap of test cloth. I agree with the Mayor of DC:

The Democratic mayor of the District of Columbia, Anthony Williams, said in an e-mailed statement: “Leaving aside the merits of this proposal, we continue to resist any efforts on the part of any member of Congress to impose rules and regulations on the people of the District.”

Let the people of DC decide for themselves how they want to govern. Give them representation.

The Topeka Capital Journal is reporting that Ken Canfield is expressing interest in the Governor’s race for 2006. As I predicted, Brownback is claiming neutrality. See what you think…

Speculation has been that Canfield was encouraged to run by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. Kim Smith, a longtime staffer for Brownback in Johnson County, has taken a leave of absence to help on Canfield’s campaign.

Canfield called the senator “a good, close, personal friend,” but said Brownback hadn’t encouraged him to run.

“He was shocked I was considering this,” Canfield said.

Yeah, and I have some ocean front property I’d like to sell ya in Dodge City.

Canfield is certainly the kind of candidate that ideologically matches Brownback. Canfield hates gays and women, believes in the dismantling of public education, and is completely unqualified for the job.

Some of the local conservative blogs have been buzzing with rumors about Ken Canfield and his supposed intention to run for Governor. Many of these rumors have centered around theories of Brownback anointing Canfield as the front runner. As of this evening, Brownback has not officially endorsed anyone.

I think endorsing any republican candidate for Kansas Governor would be monumentally stupid. The KS GOP is busy shooting itself in the face over the abortion issue and Sebelius is a juggernaut. If Brownback were to endorse anyone in the race, he would look weak when they lost to Sebelius. How can he run for president if he can’t help defeat a Democratic Governor in Kansas. Without knowing Sebelius, you wouldn’t think it would be that hard.

Bottom line: Brownback is likely to stay out of the primary race. The general election will be unavoidable, but look for him to stay at the sidelines as much as possible. My prediction is that “scheduling conflicts” will abound. Sebelius is so well liked and respected that she will destroy any opponent.

I have written before about Brownback’s attempt to garner support from Christian fundamentalist Bush voters who feel their issues have not been addressed by the current administration. An Agape Press article from today is a good example of that strategy:

…Pro-family groups are charging the White House with not going enough to push for a Federal Marriage Amendment. The amendment will have to wait until next year for action, and supporters are asking the White to do more. Senator Sam Brownback agrees. “I hope we get the White House to engage much more aggressively on the marriage amendment,” the Kansas Republican says. The amendment was passed in subcommittee by a narrow party-line vote, but has not make it to the floor for action yet. Brownback maintains that is where President Bush can make a difference. “It’s my hope that next year, even in the [president’s] State of the Union message … that he will encourage and state strong support for defining marriage in the Constitution as a man and a woman,” he says. Brownback feels that until the president takes a more aggressive stance, the amendment will languish — and the courts, not the people, will define marriage.

This is an issue that has incensed fundamentalists. While Bush campaigned hard on the intolerance amendment, the moment he was elected the issue was shelved. Many church leaders feel forgotten at best and deceived at worst. Senator Sam Brownback hopes to capitalize on this feeling and promise the fundamentalists that their issues will be heard should he be elected President.

This strategy has become markedly easier to pursue as Bush’s poll ratings have fallen. While criticizing the President just a year ago would have been political suicide for a republican presidential hopeful, today it seems required. Both John McCain (on the issue of torture) and Tom Tancredo (immigration) have vocally disagreed with the President in the past few weeks.

The next year will see Brownback continuing to argue that Bush is not socially conservative enough for his hardcore supporters. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an Internet campaign (ala Howard Dean) that would attempt to join together fundamentalist Brownback supporters from across the nation for fundraising support.

While some of this is conjecture, I know for certain that Brownback will continue his assault on the GLBT community. He seems to truly enjoy promoting intolerance and bigotry.

There will be a lull in posting for a few days… barring any Turkey Day Brownback revelations.

Kansas Blogs are the topic of discussion in a Lawrence Journal World article this morning:

For now, experts say, such blogs don’t have much reach beyond hard-core political activists and journalists in Kansas. But they’re unfettered by the rules and regulations that govern other forms of political communication, and could help shape the agenda for state campaigns in 2006 and beyond.

“It’s a great way of democratizing the media,” said Kansas University political science student Nate Thames, who runs a blog devoted to criticism of Republican U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback. “I think the more voices, the better.”

I truly believe what I said. I would be happy to see a pro-Sam Brownback blog started. I don’t think they would have much to discuss, maybe Brownback’s love of kittens or gardening habits, but rarely is dialogue negative.

Last Thursday I mentioned Brownback’s foray into energy policy. While trolling the murky depths of the conservative blogosphere I happened upon a white paper by one of the authors of the the Fuel Choices for American Security Act of 2005. Written by Rep Jack Kingston, one of the bill’s cosponsors in the House, it outlines much of what all of the news organizations have mentioned plus one glaring exception:

The U.S. must expand domestic oil production from domestic resources in Alaska, the deep ocean waters of the outer continental shelf, and other areas that will be economically viable in this new higher price oil market – western shale reserves for example. Most of the 130 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil reserves in the U.S. are currently off limits due to restrictions on new development in Alaska, on federal lands, and on the Outer Continental Shelf. Likewise, all previous conservation efforts and efficiency improvements in the transportation industry have been overwhelmed by rapidly expanding demand. With oil consumption expected to grow by another 60 percent over the next 25 years, conservation alone is not the solution.

Drilling. Who woulda thunk it? Obviously drilling in Alaska is a bad idea consisting of a handout to Oil Corporations with no actual payoffs for American petroleum consumers.

More interesting is the lack of this information in the stories about the plan. As we all know, the republicans in the House of Representatives have enough votes to pass drilling in Alaska. Where they lack is in the Senate. If the Senate version of the bill does not include the drilling provisions while the House version does, in conference committee the drilling could be rammed through by republicans.

Plus, with no CAFE standard raises this bill does nothing to prevent GM from getting government subsidies to manufacture a hybrid Hummer that gets 2 more mpg.

We still don’t have a copy of the actual legislation. I’ll continue to follow up as more information becomes available.

With the John Murtha brouhaha yesterday, I thought now might be a great time to revisit some of Senator Sam Brownback’s statements during the Kosovo conflict. I am sure he was completely supportive of President Clinton…

First up, story by the AP titled “Roberts, Brownback back troops but still question mission“:

Despite voting against NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia, Kansas Sens. Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback said Wednesday they support U.S. troops involved in the effort to end the conflict in Kosovo.

‘’There isn’t any member of Congress now who doesn’t support the troops,'’ Roberts said.

But the Republican lawmakers, both of whom voted Tuesday against a resolution backing the mission, remained critical of the Clinton administration’s reasoning.

‘’It was ill-advised, ill-timed and a very dangerous action on our part,'’ said Brownback, a Foreign Relations Committee member

Next we have a press release from Brownback on May 4, 1999:

“The situation in Kosovo is a serious one deserving of deliberation and vigorous debate,” Brownback said. “At this point in time, the administration has not provided the members of the Senate with the information needed to make an informed decision. Therefore, I will vote to table the resolution.

“What is the objective? How do we define success? Is there a coherent and achievable plan of action? What price would we pay for this in terms of potential loss of lives? What about the monetary cost? Is escalation in the true national interest of the U.S.?

Finally, the kicker from a March 31, 1999 press release. Brownback you hypocritical partisan hack:

“Our men and women in uniform have performed magnificently in such a hostile terrain,” Brownback said. “They have shown the best the U.S. has to offer. I continue to implore the Clinton administration to present a clearly thought-out exit strategy from the hostilities in Kosovo.

“I oppose the use of U.S. combat ground troops. We should not insert U.S. ground troops into yet another Balkan military conflict.

“From the outset I thought it unwise for us to be in Kosovo, and I will be pushing to get our troops out of harms way as soon as possible,” Brownback said.

Once again, Senator Sam Brownback is shown to be a partisan hypocrite. Does he support the formation of an exit strategy from Iraq? No.

Sam “Hypocrite” Brownback ‘08

I was slogging through the rotting morass that is the conservative blogosphere to catch up on Brownback’s comments at a republican Senate blogging faux press conference. One of his remarks in particular stood out in the context of Brownback’s focus and supposed compassion for Africa. One conservative blogger wrote:

This campaign is part of a broader Republican effort, Brownback says, for which the Republicans in general and the administration in particular have not received fair credit. These humanitarian initiatives include President Bush’s funding of programs to fight AIDS in Africa… Brownback seems to be one of the relatively few social conservatives who has backed his rhetoric with actual work, having visited many of the world’s genuine disaster areas in the last several years.

AIDS. A terrible disease that has orphaned 12 million children and caused immense suffering. For Brownback even to utter the word AIDS is an affront to those who are working to reduce the infection rates. As Foreign Affairs reports:

The involvement of conservative groups in shaping AIDS policy has been most problematic in the area of general AIDS-prevention strategies, where their distinct sexual mores have led them to dissent from what most others consider medical best practice. For example, since condoms, if used properly and consistently, are at least 90 percent effective in preventing AIDS transmission, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has quietly provided millions of them annually to AIDS-stricken countries. Now that religious conservatives have taken up the AIDS cause, however, such programs have come under attack. Thus the Family Research Council has insisted that the Bush administration’s AIDS plan not become “an airlift for condoms,” while conservative religious groups convened by Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kans.) have taken aim at various prevention programs that the plan had considered funding.

By the time legislation implementing the president’s vision… was completed, conservatives in the House had succeeded in redirecting one-third of its AIDS-prevention funding toward programs urging abstinence before marriage. The conservatives are inspired by Uganda’s “ABC” (Abstinence, Be Faithful, and Use Condoms) program, which has helped lower prevalence dramatically, and are particular fans of its A and B components, which, if faithfully adopted, might offer nearly total AIDS protection…

Unfortunately, however, scientific evaluation and medical surveillance paint a different picture. Studies of Ugandan AIDS prevalence that try to assess the relative contributions of abstinence, multiple-partner reduction, and condom use in lowering infection rates have found that abstinence actually made the smallest contribution, while condoms and partner reduction had the largest impact. David Serwadda, a Ugandan physician who chairs the Global HIV Prevention Working Group, has stated, “As a physician who has been involved in Uganda’s response to AIDS for 20 years, I fear that one small part of what led to Uganda’s success — promoting sexual abstinence — is being overemphasized in policy debates.”

Senator Sam Brownback is the worst kind of religious opportunist. He is willing to sacrifice the lives of millions of people in order to advance his scientifically wrong religious ideology. This man should not only not be President, but should be run out of the Senate. To be fair, if Brownback wants to come out and advocate for more condom education in Africa, then I will be happy to take back my words. But he won’t take his words back, because he is beholden to Dobson and the other bigoted unscientific snake oil peddlers.