Fortney "Pete" Stark, the San Francisco-area Congressman who is to replace the corrupt Charlie Rangel as Chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, is a nasty piece of work. The charitable way to put his verbal outbursts is "gaffe-prone." He shows signs of anti-Semitism and racial insensitivity.

Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) apologized to Congress, President Bush and the Bush family yesterday for saying last week that Republicans were sending the nation's youth to Iraq "to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement." [...]

2003: As Stark belittled House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), then-Rep. Scott McInnis (R-Colo.) told him to "shut up."

"You think you are big enough to make me, you little wimp?" Stark taunted. "Come on. Come over here and make me, I dare you. You little fruitcake."  [...]

2001: At a Ways and Means subcommittee hearing on abstinence promotion, Stark referred to then-Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) as the "current Republican Conference chairman, whose children were all born out of wedlock."

1995: In a private meeting, Stark called then-Rep. Nancy L. Johnson (R-Conn.) a "whore for the insurance industries." [...]

1991: Stark singled out "Jewish colleagues" for blame for the Persian Gulf War, referring to then-Rep. Stephen Solarz (D-N.Y.) as "Field Marshal Solarz in the pro-Israel forces."

1990: Stark called then-Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan, who is African American, "as close to being a disgrace to his race as anyone I've ever seen."