Rep. McClintock gave the following floor speech in response to comments made by a MSNBC commentator on January 20, 2010.
Mr. Speaker:
I never thought I would see the day when a commentator entrusted by a major broadcast network with the ability to reach millions of listeners would use his influence to incite voter fraud, but this week we passed that unfortunate milestone.
On Friday the 15th, MSNBC commentator Ed Schultz told his nationally syndicated radio audience: “I tell you what, if I lived in Massachusetts I’d try to vote ten times. I don’t know if they’d let me or not, but I’d try to. Yeah, that’s right. I’d cheat to keep these bastards out. I would.” This could be dismissed as an unfortunate verbal excess brought on by the passion of the moment, except for the fact that when given the opportunity to retract the statement, Mr. Schultz embellished it in a way that makes it crystal clear that his words were deliberate and calculated. He said, “I misspoke on Friday. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I meant to say, if I could vote 20 times that’s what I’d do.” Later he said, “Let me be very clear – I’m not advocating voter fraud, I’m just telling you what I would do.”
Mr. Speaker, exactly how does one not advocate voter fraud when three times on national broadcasts you say that’s what you would do?
This can only be interpreted as incitement to commit voter fraud in a pivotal election in the course of our nation. As such, it strikes at the very foundation of our democratic traditions and our constitutional institutions. In every election -- win, lose or draw -- it is of utmost importance that the vote be fair, that it be accurate, and that it has the confidence of every citizen – both those in the majority and those in the minority. If we cannot trust the sanctity of the vote, we have destroyed the legitimacy of that vote and with it the legitimacy of our government.
All of our governing institutions and all of their acts rest upon a single foundation: fair and free elections which guarantee that those who exercise authority under our Constitution do so “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
It is this principle that Mr. Schultz has sought to desecrate and demean. His statements excusing voter fraud weaken the single most important mechanism of our democracy and undermine our form of government.
His words deserve – indeed, they demand – the contempt and condemnation of every American. And they deserve immediate action by those who have accorded him his broadcast platforms and whose silence and inaction thus far can only be described as a disgrace.
Dear Rep. McClintock:
In my state (New York), a photo id is required for driving a vehicle, and since 9/11, a photo id is required to enter many commerical real estate buildings. Yet, no photo id is required in order to cast a vote.
Brietbart reported that "The Working Families Party and local Democratic Party Officials are at the center of a massive voter fraud scandal in Troy, NY. According to the Times Union--Dozens of forged and fraudulent absentee ballots from people registered to vote on the Working Families Party line were filed in the Sept. 15 primary elections in Troy."
Meaningful speech you gave (1/2010) -- too bad "mainstream media" did not give it the front page attention that such a speech deserves. How did Rep. Pelosi respond to your speech? As a reward, did she provide you and your family with a subsidized US miltary aircraft for travel? If the public loses faith in the uprightness of the electoral process or the upright behavior of their employee-representatives, then the republic is doomed.
Thank you.
Man! Someone must be paying DuBois to stay on the line full time.
Tremendous Success to you , Tom
Tom, nbc in all its incarnations doesn't command an audience large enough to fill a large school bus. When you respond as you did, you just give them undeserved publicity and a potential increase in viewers. Nonrecognition is, instead, the best medicine for msnbc and their pathetic ratings. Treat them as though they don't exist, and before you know it, they won't.
Seriously,
We have a pahetic system that is broken with not enough worker bees to ensure that the checks and balances are getting enforced in a timely manner. Instead of paying congressmen and women over 250,000 a year I suggest we take away at least 25,000 from each one of them and build an office filled with constitutionally educated personell that look to oversee what their offices are doing, Who they are doing business with. Who they are meeting with. Who they are getting campaign monies from. What their earmarks are and why ? They have been allowed to much leeway in dangerous times amidst a dangerous world and what we need is to be sure that these politcal appointees are working not for special interest inside or outside of our country. We the people are suffering coast to coast from bad leadership, period. Being a public citizen means you lose your rights as a private citizen. And like one of my favorite people says, Dr.Phil. ' People who have nothing to hide, hide nothing.' Fact is we have political leaders, men and women that think they are autonomous and above the laws of this country. That they have not or would not break laws is fallacy ad hoc and ignoratio ad homen at its' best. So, Again I turn back to the lack of support or willingness of the Ethics Comittee in Washington,D.C., and the inability of that agency to police itself and its' abundant failures at making sure ( OUR COUNTRY) , is protected from internal enemies. Ask any soldier about the oath we took..." To defend this nation from all enemies foreign or domestic". Seems we are empowering our domestic enemies that are in office. Did I go to far ? Don't think so. I stand by that statement based on their actions and lack of response to any concerns as an act of complicity to keep the public from discovery of facts. Regarding any public project, action and or decision they make on any constituents behalf. They must disclose upon request, failure to do so is against Federal laws. Which Nancy Pelosi and Neil Abercrombie are good at. Do take me to court for libel or slander, you two. You will lose. Abercrombie I gave you over a year to respond to me, you chose to ignore me. Ask Alcee Hasting in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida who I am. Now that is a real congressman, like Tom is. Again I have to reinforce they are (PUBLIC) citizens not private. They are not rising up to take care of you, they are stooping down to take care of themselves. And like Thomas Jefferson it will be a cold day in Haitis when I surrender my right to challenge the decisions they make in my name. So, should you . BTW, I lived in Alexandria and Arlington, Va., while working at a historical library in Alexandria off of King St, I read a few of their personal diaries, you should too. I am not calling for a McCarthy approach or even close to that. I am calling for a standard much like the U.S. Air Force applies as a standard of measure. A Continuous improvement process that is actively at work. I am sorry to say, but adults as much as children need to know their boundaries. We have to ensure they are leading us in the way we all agree we want to go. At the same time we have the legal right to know. That they are doing it to the standards we set, to include our forefathers set. Knowing what they are doing behind closed doors, unless it is about the National Security issues is a battle we took on in the 1960's. Trying to shed light and get real time information so as to stop disasters from happening in our system. Weeding out the real corrupt and those who attempt to destroy good Senators like Harry Reid and men like him whom are time proven, to protect them that are working against our best interest in D.C. can not have any compromise in our life or the lives of our children. Seems the media without the right to trial keeps being empowered and allowed to denegrate and destroy people's reputations without any form of punishment. Fines or court actions. See . Tom that is what we really need to look at. That is why I am appealing to your common sense. Look past the tv or radio and who is saying this or that. Look beneath the hood of that car, there is a gerbel loose ! Think outside the box. I believe we need to generate thought, brainstorm ideas together and work for the common good of all. And stop letting communications majors tell us what to think or what we should value. I think we can figure it out without them. The end.4
BOTTOM LINE
Take it to the people and make your argument. This smacks of a mixture or facism and comedic ignorance. You may not like what he said or the context in how he said it. For the record neither do I, but I support his rights, no matter how misinformed of him, to say what he wants to. Your job is to make an intelligent response, plea and or argument against his with Emperical support.Bitch slapping someone with words is just....blahhh so msnbc of you so that is my Bottom line.
Are we adults or uneducated children,
Let's begin with the fact that your colleagues that flat out refuse to handle the problems we the people we have in the capital of Washington D.C., those pretending to represent the will of ALL the people and act fairly to all American citizens. Whilst you kep your heads low try to get the upper hand. Let me start with; Nancy Pelosi and her office, who is the rudest, most condesending person in congress I have ever dealt with, next to Neil Abercrombie, they are totally partisan and do not listen to any voices that do not sing to their lyrics, or dance to their tune. We are living in a time where our power of Free Speach is being attacked. Senator Harry Reid was a victim of the power of the pen,or as I like to call it, an attempted political assasination at its' best. Senator Edward Kennedy,a week before his passing ,I received an e-mail from Senator Edward Kennedy's office regarding a hate speech act, Dear Gary: Thank you for your recent letter on the Mathew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, S. 909. My only problem is I do not recall the letter I wrote to him or the fact I even wrote to him, but I probably did . Funny thing though is, I wrote to president Obama about corruption in Hawaii and greed and got nothing back, not a peep. I also heard his state of the Union where he claimed he did something for Vets. And now has me wondering what voices he is hearing in his head . Since (we) 100% disabled vets did not get a cost of living allowance raise this year, and accoording to the DAV in Virginia Headquarters, to whom I spoke with, we are living at 25%, below the national standards. I guess he really helped us out . I am just not sure how , yet. Perhaps Joe Biden can explain it to him. First Mr. President you actually have to get it done. Then you claim you did. Did what ? You know, the thing you said you did. Obama gives him that stumped, glaze gaze he shows on tv. So, you want to talk about voter fraud ....ok I find it appalling that while I was living in Florida my phone rang. See, Jeb Bush had won the election the day before in the state as Governor. I was not prepared however to answere questions on how well he was doing his job so far. So far ??? He had not even sat down in the chair yet. And on it went, on how good he did. No no no, this reminds me of Tucson, Az and the Earps where Earps rival, John Beham had the cowboys Johnny Ringo and others stuffing the ballotts in a community of 50, claiming over 1oo people voted. Get the idea ? Not much has changed. Sophist have not changed, we the people are being led by dictators who do not listen to the will of the people. Sad but true, or if they do listen it is only to a selected few. A sample audience.(( Hey Pelosi)), Your are the village idiot on so many levels let's do a debate. I have zero respect for you and that other moron in Hawaii Ever crummy. You are only looking out for yourselves and your friends. So, Congressmen it makes total sense to me what that man said. After all I never met anyone when I lived in Florida who actually voted for G.W. Bush either, nope as I recall, tha majority was for Al Gore. Are you serious that we are so naieve? That we did not also believe that hacker on the HBO special was unable to fix the voting machines ? We saw him do it. Simply put what we lack is an ethics comittee in Washington D.C. that has ethics , or morals it is led by butt kissing chipmunks that are busy kissing someones hind end and covering up for them. We need my freind Stephen Fords dad back in the white house or someone like him. Or we need men like Truman back at the helm, these back street boys and girls are not for me. Sorry if this stings but my give a dam is broken right now. The only congressman right now I have any respect for is the one sponsering the bill to see to it that congress does not get a COLA in 2010,Dan Burton of Indiana 5th district, unless you can put the disabled veterans first and show me you care about them. Do not call me or my friends for you support, you won't get it. Our vote matters ??? Are you serious ?
The left in this country, will stop at nothing to try to maintain their power and push their agenda.
Has anyone asked Ed Schultzs to resign, apologize or be fired? I find it funny how other news and radio personalities have made comments that people were offended by and such actions (above) had to take place but one saying he would commit voter fraud and recommend it to others has nothing happen to him. Wow!
WHY ?? Does he not have the right no matter what to say what he thinks. I think I served in the Army, Air Force so he could. Or are we getting into Facism now ?
I think we have to worry about people who are alarmist and tell us (WE) have to watch (THEM) know what I mean ?
Dear Tom:
I had heard Ed Schultz's comments the other day and I appreciate you repeating his further comments after the election of Scott Brown. This is what is so dangerous about the American left: they want conservatives to obey the laws and think up new laws that they think we should also follow. The problem is they have the arrogance to believe it is okay to not obey the laws in their case if the cause they follow is threatened by the actions of others!! And the action they are afraid of is ordinary citizens exercising their American right of voting!!
Rep. Tom: keep the good work in Washington! I only wish you were my representative instead of the Democrat who is my rep now.
Jack Sonke
Altadena, CA
Sorry I am still in the SHOW ME STATE of our dance Tom. So close yet...
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Representative McClintock. I've always known my contributions to your campaigns are not wasted. We need many more with your values and courage.
Mr. McClintock, good for you for standing up to the out-of-control leftist hacks that call themselves journalists. The left in this country, as this MSNBC commentator demostrates, will stop at nothing to try to maintain their power and push their agenda. The importance of the Massachusett's vote certainly was not lost on him, but I expect the message was. The American people are fed up with the direction of this country and the methods being used by the left to force their agenda down our throats. It high time they be shown the door. November will be here before they know it.
Thank you Representative McClintock for taking a stand and commenting on the floor on this unfortunately and, I think, revealing episode by the MSNBC commentator. I think you can tell a lot about folks in how they handle the 'bad' news, and when they are upset, etc. Thus, a revealing episode. I wish YOU had a microphone to reach (us) millions more often - you are so well informed on our Nation's history, government, and politics, and you explain things so very clearly -- I just wish we could hear more of you more often!! Thanks again for commenting on this 'episode' and putting it in informative and thoughtful perspective.
Yes, thank you for showing us that Americans better watch what they say ! Maybe we need to hire more cops too while we are at it and make sure we know where ( THESE ) people go at night. Smacks of MCCarthyism to me. And I soooooooooo dislike ism's !
Mr Dubios,
McClintock did not suggest any criminal prosecution by the government.
He said that Schultz's comments should be held in "comtempt and condemnation" by the public, and that his employer (MSNBC) ought to reconsider who they're handing a microphone. Voter fraud, and the loss of public faith that results, is a serious threat to our democracy. It is very discouraging to see voter fraud encouraged by a man of stature on a major news broadcast. Anyone in such a powerful position of influence should demonstrate reasonable social responsibility for the content of their broadcasts, without being legally compelled to do so.
McClintock didn't argue for any application of laws to this issue. He simply wanted to call attention to the significance of Schultz's actions and encourage us, of our own volition, to condemn them.
Here's the quote where McClintock spells out consequences:
"His words deserve – indeed, they demand – the contempt and condemnation of every American. And they deserve immediate action by those who have accorded him his broadcast platforms and whose silence and inaction thus far can only be described as a disgrace."
There is no call for government action here. Note that he merely called the inaction of MSNBC a "disgrace", but not illegal.
I do realize that making this speech on the floor of the House gives an air of government involvement - so I'm not sure if I agree with the venue. But his comments only suggested action by the people and MSNBC, not a governmental response.