On Shadow Pete we will shadow Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Holland). Our goal is to compile the largest online repository for information on Pete Hoekstra and his cover up of information on the Mariana's Islands, Jack Abramoff, Duke Cunningham and other issues.
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In his quest for the perfect Republican Totalitarian government, Pete Hoekstra lashed out at the founders of our country today.
"The founding fathers designed a remarkably inefficient system."
In his annual Christmas address to the Holland Chamber of Commerce, Hoekstra complained that "The next two years will be dominated by politics, campaigning and posturing." The former Chairman (thank God) of the House Intelligence Committee told the faithful corporatists that the Democrats have a full agenda and will have a tough time getting anything done because the founders designed a "remarkably inefficient system".
Seemingly, Hoekstra believes that the majority party, his, of course should be able to pass any and all bills that they want to without input, debate, or opposition from the minority party, ours, of course and that the minority having any say at all in this process was a design flaw by the founders.
Perhaps, Pete missed some of his history and civics classes as he was growing up and learning to be a vice president of industry. If he would take the time to learn about the founding of our country and the formation of our government he might learn something; "The founders wanted it to be difficult for one party to control, they made it difficult on purpose, so that the radical wing of whichever party could not enact radical legislation on the people.
But I suppose we should cut him some slack because mostly he is still whining about the loss of his power as chairman, and, of course, he is posturing and campaigning for Carl Levin's seat in '08.
It seems that Pete wants to get us involved in the internal politics of Nicaraqua again. The Greenpagan has written an excellent article about the recent elections in Nicaraqua and the reactions of some of the conservatives in Washington who are left over from the Regan administration.
Congressman Peter Hoekstra, outgoing chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, addressed a public letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calling for the Bush administration to “fully re-evaluate relations with Nicaragua” in the event of an Ortega victory. US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez warned that more than $220 million in aid and even more in capital investments were at risk... read the whole transcript here.
Some politicians in Washington have a lot of important and difficult decisions to make for our country. Then there are the politicians who have a lot of important and difficult decisions to make for themselves. In the 2006 election cycle Pete Hoekstra got nearly half of his half million dollars in donations from corporate PAC's and special interest groups.
As Chairman of the Permanent House Select Committee on Intelligence, Hoekstra crafted legislation that benefited the very same Defense Contractors and Corporations that were funding his campaign; Isn't there something intrinsicly wrong with that? Maybe not if you use the standard of House Ethics that were in place during the Republican rule but how about from a moral standard? Should Lockheed Martin or Northrup Grumman be giving money to Hoekstra while Hoekstra is deciding on legislation to award multi-million dollar defense contracts to these companies?
Do you remember when Pete Hoekstra and Rick Santorum were running around the country, proclaiming that the WMD that Bush had used as a prtext to invade Iraq had been found? Hoekstra/Santorum seemed to be the only ones who thought so. Bush's own Pentagon said "these are not the WMD's..." What they had found in Iraq were some dilapidated, degraded abandoned and forgotten chemical munitions that were left over from before the first Gulf War.
Pete Hoekstra has been doing a lot of war mongering about both Iraq and Iran, in fact he issued a report from his committee a couple of months ago that was written by an aide to John Bolten, not by the committee. Mohammed ElBardei, the chief weapons inspector for the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Commission) called that report "outrageous and dishonest".
Is Pete Hoekstra looking out for our best interests or is he just trumping up this perpetual war on terrorism in order to distribute our money to his buddies in the defense industry? I can't answer that question, but wouldn't it be better if we didn't even have to ask the question because politicians who make such decisions did not take money from corporations who have business before their committees or the House or the Senate?
I think this is possibly the strongest indication yet that Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mi) is positioning himself to run for U.S. Senate against Carl Levin in the 2008 election cycle.
Hoekstra calls for replacing GOP leadership
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
By Ed Golder
CHRONICLE NEWS SERVICE
Republican Party leaders -- including Michigan GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis -- should be replaced after last week's election losses, said U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Holland. "After you get whacked, you need a clear change in leadership," Hoekstra said Monday. "You need a fresh look. You need that at the national level and you need that at the state level."
Hoekstra joins a growing number of Republicans who have targeted Anuzis in the wake of defeats. Last week, officers of the Kent County Republican Party wrote a letter to activists calling for the ouster of Anuzis and supporting local 3rd Congressional District Chairman Dave Dishaw for the job. Anuzis and Dishaw will face off at the February Republican convention in Grand Rapids. Also, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman announced last week that he would leave his post at year's end. Hoekstra addressed a range of issues in an interview with The Grand Rapids Press editorial writers Monday. Hoekstra will lose influence and profile as Democrats take control of Congress. After January, when Democrats will have majority in the House and Senate, he will no longer be chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He blamed the Republican defeat on President Bush and Congress, especially their handling of the war in Iraq. "People just perceived Republicans and the president as locked too firmly into a strategy that's not working," Hoekstra said.
U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, who will become chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has vowed to reintroduce a non-binding resolution endorsing a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq to begin within six months. Hoekstra expressed concern about a quick withdrawal. "Is Carl committed to winning the war in Iraq?" he asked. "Is Carl committed to winning the war against radical Islam? We'll find out."
Hoekstra expressed hope for the Iraq Study Group, headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton. The group's report, expected by year's end, will give"an honest assessment of where we are today -- what'sworking and what's not -- in a nonpartisan environment," Hoekstra said.
Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) posts sophisticated and detailed plans for a nuclear device on the internet, follow the link to the New York Times story ! Read the full story here
On Tuesday Pete Hoekstra was re-elected to Congress from the 2nd district of Michigan. This will be Hoekstra's 8th term in Congress, even though, he promised the people of west Michigan that he would not serve more than six terms.
Pete Hoekstra promised the people of west Michigan that he would not take PAC money for his campaigns but he lied about that too. The Federal Elections Commission reports that Hoekstra accepted Hundreds of thousands of dollars from corporate PACs during this and previous election cycles.
Rep. Hoekstra has been serving as the Chairman of The House Select Committee on Intelligence during his past term, but this is comming to an end in January when the Democrats will assume all committee chairs and herein lies the problem for Rep. Hoekstra; how is he going to continue the cover-up of administration and committee wrongdoing as a minority member of the committee? answer; he can't.
The Heartland Progressive will begin publishing two additional blogs beginning soon. The first will be The Michigan Progressive which will address Michigan politics exclusively and the second will be called Shadow Pete where we will expose issues of corruption related to Rep. Peter Hoekstra. The local media in west Michigan has done a disservice to the constiuents of the 2nd district by refusing to investigate and publish stories related to Pete Hoekstra's alledged corruption. The two biggest offenders are The Holland Sentinel and the Muskegon Chronicle. The Michigan Progressive and Shadow Pete will remind these newspapers of their responsibilities.
