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Rob Curnock: When You’re That Far Right, Everyone is to Your Left
When your opponent is a well respected member of the community, and is an incumbent Democrat, the only thing for a Republican to do is go so far to the right that your opponent appears to be on the far left.
Rob Curnock spoke to a small group of students on a college campus on Wednesday afternoon, and talked for almost an hour without actually saying anything.
Curnock said that Congressman Edwards has “San Francisco values” and is one of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s “top boys in Washington.” Curnock spent a significant amount of time attempting to paint Edwards as a far left liberal, but the truth is that Edwards is only liberal when compared to a far right conservative like Curnock.
The fact is that Congressman Edwards is a moderate and independent Democrat, and if people do look at Edwards’s record, as Curnock has asked them to, it will be simple to distinguish between reality and political rhetoric. The National Journal ranks Senators and Congressman every year from the most liberal to the most conservative based on their voting record. Curnock would likes to label Edwards as a far left liberal; Edwards was ranked as the 206th most liberal</a> member of the House of Representatives and was on the National Journal’s list of Centrist congressmen.
If Curnock was elected he would not be interested in serving all of his constituents, “We do not need Democrat votes to win.” Instead of representing all of the Brazos Valley Curnock would “advance a conservative agenda” in Washington. Curnock wants to advance this far right agenda because he believes that no one has stood up for conservative values “in the last 30 years.”
While Curnock is laying out his rehearsed stump speech he may sound knowledgeable and to some he may even sound authoritative, however, when he starts taking questions from voters he sounds uninformed and imperceptive.
When was asked about his position in health care and confronted with the fact that of the 47 million people in the United States are uninsured, and that Texas has the highest rate of uninsured in the nation with one out of every four Texans not having health insurance, Curnock stammered and questioned whether or not the statistics are accurate and saying “I don’t know exactly what the number is.” I suppose that the United States Census Bureau and the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation are not credible sources. Curnock even had the audacity to say that “I know some people don’t have insurance because of their choice.” Then Curnock tried to downplay the plight of the uninsured by suggesting that no one is really uninsured, “everyone is taken care of, the hospitals have to help you.”
As for what Curnock would propose to fix the health care crisis, “sticks and carrots for employers.” According to his own position he would support offering tax credits to individuals to offset the cost of insurance, which is reminiscent of Senator John McCain’s health care plan. “I like most of his plan.” A plain that would cover less than half of the cost of health care, and a plan that would continue to leave millions of Americans uninsured and without health care.
When asked about alternative energy, and specifically about T. Boone Pickens plan for energy independence, Curnock said that “I won’t oppose it.” However he also said, “I’m not sure if the whole country should be nothing but a bunch of windmills around.” This shows a fundamental lack of understanding of what the T. Boone Pickens plan actually is, whether you agree with it or not.
When talking about taxes Curnock said that the “lower middle class gets squeezed,” however according to his own position he would favor a decrease in taxes for everyone except for those that make less than $12,000 a year, but that does not address the real economic problems that the lower middle class are facing.
One of the strangest things that Curnock said was about gun control. Despite the fact that you can have gun control and protect the 2nd Amendment Curnock said that “I’m a gun owner. I don’t need some momma up in Washington telling me what to do.”
The truth is that Rob Curnock does not have any answers to any real questions, and he is simply a far right conservative that does not care about representing his district in a bi-partisan manner. Curnock is so far right that when he ran in the House District 11 Republican primary in 2002 he lost by almost 45% of the vote. Before that Curnock lost a 2000 primary bid in the same district, finishing 20% behind the two other candidates who later competed in a runoff election. The only reason he won the primary this year: he ran unopposed. In fact he waited until just before the filing deadline so that he would not have to face a Republican primary challenge.
Congressman Edwards has been in the House of Representatives for years trying to best represent the constituents from his district, no matter what their party affiliation or political ideology. If Rob Curnock does not even represent the voters of his own party, then how could he represent the diverse voters of District 17? There is one thing that Rob Curnock represents: the divisive politics that has continued to damage this country.
