The Anti-Sam Brownback Blog

During a conference call with reporters, Senator Sam Brownback today called for a substantial reduction in troop levels in Iraq:

Sen. Sam Brownback said today that he supports “substantial” reductions in U.S. forces in Iraq within the next year, but would not commit to a timetable for withdrawal.

“They have to take control of their country,” said Brownback in a teleconference with Kansas journalists. “As far as setting a hard date to be out and I don’t think that would be wise.”

On April 8th, 2004 Senator Brownback had the following to say about troop reductions in Iraq:

VAN SUSTEREN: Senator Brownback, tonight are you concerned that it is getting worse in Iraq?

SEN. SAM BROWNBACK (R), KANSAS: Well, I’m concerned that it’s getting worse and that the situation needs to stabilize but, Greta, we’ve got to stay on the course that we’re on. We need to hand over the governing of the country on the deadlines that have been set.

We cannot back out of this and you can see clearly what the opposition to democracy coming into Iraq is after. They are trying to get at U.S. public opinion. That’s what they’re really driving at here and we need to stand firm and behind our troops and behind the efforts that’s taking place in Iraq.

What a hypocrite. Senator Sam Brownback wants it both ways. When support for the war was high, he was a chickenhawk cheerleader. Now that the American people have turned against the war, he clamors for the troops to be brought home. This man has no integrity. Perhaps “sanctity of life” rules his heart, but “sanctity of public opinion” rules his words.

This is another winning issue for Brownback who needs to moderate his image to appeal to moderate conservatives:

Caucus members have often times been joined by religious leaders in efforts to improve the human rights situation around the world. Brownback has been a frequent speaker at conferences addressing the human rights abuses in such countries as Sudan and North Korea, alongside human rights and evangelical organizations and church groups.

“Human life is our most precious gift, and we must protect it,” said Brownback.

Part of the equation for Brownback to have a chance in 2008 is a consistently compassionate outlook. Holding the position of co-chair of the Senate Human Rights Caucus aids in that image creation. His intolerance of gays and lesbians must be countered by something warm and fuzzy. He is betting human rights will fit the bill.

As I have said in the past, he is an excellent opportunistic politician.

Senator Sam Brownback has decided to unilaterally piss off two of the most powerful countries in the world, Russia and China, as a result for their noncommittal stance on Iran:

Brownback said that to pressure countries that support Iran, Washington should initiate a campaign of sanctions modeled on a 1980s campaign targeting companies that helped the Soviet Union build a pipeline to Western Europe.

“Like the former Soviet Union, both Russia and China need international technological and managerial support to keep their activities going,” said Brownback.

“No international company is going to treat lightly exclusion from the U.S. market in exchange for contracts with the Iranian government,” he said.

For some background on the Reagan economic sanctions see this Time Magazine article from June 1982.

More analysis to come.

Senator Sam Brownback will be the Keynote Speaker tomorrow at a Heritage Foundation event titled, “Preventing a Nuclear-Armed Iran: Will Russia and China Really Help?”:

[The United States and Germany], along with other democratic leaders, have insisted that the UN Security Council must discuss this issue and take action to prevent Iran from continuing efforts to establish a complete fuel cycle as a step toward nuclear weapons. But getting Iran on the docket at the Security Council and getting meaningful action from the Security Council will depend in large part upon what Russia and China do. Join us as our distinguished guests examine the multiple aspects of this growing crisis.

I think this is a shrewd move by Brownback.  His foreign policy experience already sets him apart from other religious conservatives eying the nomination, namely Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.  If Brownback becomes a leading conservative voice against Iran, it will set him up well to authoritatively answer voter’s questions about security.  Moreover, If Iran continues to be a problem for the international community it would help Brownback to remain in the public consciousness as a function of interviews.

Almost every day, people email me with outlandish tales about Brownback. When I am tempted to post unsubstantiated rumors, I console myself with the knowledge Senator Brownback will always do or say something nearly as funny or embarrassing. Courtesy of MyDD, here is exibit A from that line of thought.

Take a look at the photo to the left. Yes, that is a picture of Senator Sam Brownback in front of a giant American flag with angels at the forefront gazing lovingly upwards. It sure appears that Brownback is a well grounded every-man who can sympathize with normal people. ..

So this is sorta funny. Check out this image to the right. Notice the American flag in the arms of the cherub to the right in the original photo. Look at the flag in the hands of the cherub to the left. Kind of hard to make out, but I think I see the pre-revolution Iranian flag. Compare for yourself and see what you think.

Sure looks like a match. I have to admit, the symbolism here loses me. What is the pre-revolution Iranian flag doing on a painting of Sam Brownback along with apparent angels? Your guess is as good as mine. If anyone has anymore information about this, please send it it in. Until further notice, this is officially creepy.

Update: A person claiming to be a Brownback staffer has posted on the MyDD thread about this painting:

The real scoop: That is a painting that was presented to the senator by a very nice Iranian American gentleman who painted it and wanted to thank Brownback for his work regarding Iran, namely condemning the anti-Semitic comments of their new president and legislation to encourage peaceful democratic reform inside Iran.

Apparently they didn’t know it would be visible from outside and were just storing it in the room. Fair enough. It is still creepy.

First, a disclaimer. At least Brownback is talking about the issue of African women’s health care. There are many Democrats who haven’t given the issue 15 minutes, much less trips and press conferences. Discourse is a step in the right direction. That being said…

Brownback yet again shows rank hypocrisy by highlighting the plight of African women with fistula while neglecting to mention his support for the Global Gag rule which restricts third world women’s health care in the name of not sponsoring abortion. His journal entry for Dec. 3rd reads in part:

Today I visited a hospital operated by Doctors on Call for Services Hospital (DOCS) in Goma, DRC. The hospital services patients of all kinds, from traumatic car accident injuries, to war wounds, to children suffering from malaria. One of the major programs at DOCS treats women suffering from obstetric fistula, a condition that results in incontinence, often times from rape or prolonged child birth.

Brownback neglected to mention how the Global Gag Rule (which he supports) has decimated many other clinics. First, a refresher on what the Global Gag Rule entails:

The Global Gag Rule penalizes non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in 56 countries that receive family planning assistance funds from the U.S. These NGOs are prohibited from providing abortion-related services, including counseling and referrals, and/or lobbying on abortion issues.

So not only are these agencies not allowed to use US money to provide abortions, refer women to other abortion provider or even provide care to women who have sustained injuries from a back alley abortion but they are also prohibited from using their own money in those ways as well. When President Bush signed an executive order at the beginning of his presidency making the gag rule US policy many clinics decided that not informing women of all of their choices is unethical and so gave up their US funding.

So what does this have to do with fistula?
(more…)

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.

Over at Thoughts from Kansas Josh has posted a great writeup of Sam Brownback’s position on the Sudan. I agree 100% with Josh. In fact, I was working on a post about Brownback and the Sudan but now I see no reason to reinvent the wheel. Go read Josh’s writeup, and then bookmark Thoughts From Kansas. You’ll be glad you did.

I may joyfully rip into Senator Brownback over many issues, but in one area he does have the right idea. He has been a strong voice for humanitarian aid overseas. Sometimes the reasons may be caught up in Christian missionary needs, but food is food. Brownback is now making news because he wishes to attach human rights conditions onto the aid that the US agreed to give North Korea in exchanged for a dismantling of its nuclear weapons program. The New York Sun reports:

In order to get new aid to North Korea, President Bush will have to ask for special appropriations from Congress. One of those appropriators, Senator Brownback, a Republican of Kansas who sits on the subcommittee that approves foreign aid spending in the Senate, yesterday told the Sun that he wanted to attach conditions on the aid to the sorts of human rights reforms Mr. Lefkowitz is seeking.

“This needs to include Helsinki type provisions in the overall work with the North Korea regime,” Mr. Brownback said referring to the accords American negotiators used in talks with the Soviet Union to press for the release of political prisoners. “We need to have a human rights track in dealing with the North Koreans. I am hoping we will have some opportunities in the appropriations process with energy and other needs to come forward.”

I am sure that freedom to worship will come at the forefront of the rights requested, and I have no problem with that as long as there are others rights as well. Obviously the devil is in the details and it will be hard to enforce any rights agreements. However, I do appreciate the attempt. This is an issue that will play well with both the left and the right with particular resonance with Christian conservatives. There are not many issues out there that can cross lines like this one. It is a smart play for Brownback, and one that again sets him apart from Mike Huckabee.