House Speaker Pelosi “rebukes” Rep. Pete Stark (D-Moonbatia)

First, the remarks:

During his outburst, the Fremont lawmaker said “you don’t have money to fund the war, or children, but you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to sent to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president’s amusement.”

He went on to say, “in his previous job as an actor, our governor used to play make believe and blow things up. Well, the president and the Republicans in Congress are playing make believe today with children’s lives. The truth is that Bush just likes to blow things up, in Iraq, in the United States, and in Congress.”

Gateway Pundit has video here, in a post in which he explains how the popular liberal blog blatantly lied about what Stark said on the floor of the House.

Stark has refused to apologize, and instead stands by the repugnant comments made Thursday, during the debate over whether or not the President’s veto on the expansion of SCHIP should be overriden.

House Speaker Pelosi, under pressure from Republicans, responded Friday with a mild rebuke:

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rebuked a fellow San Francisco Bay-area liberal Friday for what she said were “inappropriate” comments about Iraq during a congressional debate.

During a debate on children’s health care Thursday, Rep. Pete Stark accused Republicans of sending troops to Iraq to “get their heads blown off for the president’s amusement.”

Condemnations rolled in from Republican politicians, right-leaning bloggers had a field day, and a White House spokesman declined to “dignify those remarks” with a response.

Pelosi issued a statement Friday evening rapping Stark, who is in his 18th term representing the liberal East Bay. He’s California’s longest-serving House members.

“While members of Congress are passionate about their views, what Congressman Stark said during the debate was inappropriate and distracted from the seriousness of the subject at hand — providing health care for America’s children,” Pelosi said.

Yeah, you get ‘im, Nancy!

Seriously, that was like a non-rebuke rebuke. Now let’s just imagine that Bush had made similarly disparaging remarks about Democrats, you think Pelosi would stop at merely criticizing the remarks as “inappropriate”? Of course not.

Don Surber speculates on why Pelosi issued the mild rebuke:

I am sure that Mrs. Pelosi sincerely meant her words. If Congress were only as unloved as President Bush — whose job approval was 24% in the same poll — she might have bitten her lip and held back on publicly criticizing an old friend who really should be retired.

But we live in a democracy and a speaker must do what she has to do if she does not want to become House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The public is roiling over this Congress. She lived through 1994. The people love gridlock and next year they might go back to a Democratic president and a Republican House.

Whatever the reason she lightly scolded Stark, my personal opinion is that I hope Stark doesn’t apologize in turn. Clearly, this is what the little jerk believes, and the comments stand on their own, as representative of not just what Stark believes of our President (and our military, which he insulted, too) but what many other Bush-hating Democrats believe but are too scared to say out of worry of the potential political ramifications.

Interesting how right around Halloween is when the Democrat masks start to fall off. It happened last year, and it looks like they’re going for a repeat this year.

Costume? Or …

Related: Does it get any better than Mark Steyn? He has a must-read today, titled: The real war on children.