“We cannot let Gary Trauner win"
Wyoming Rep. Barbara Cubin Will Not Seek Eighth Term
By Brodie Farquhar, 11-10-07
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Representative Barbara Cubin, R-WY, announced Saturday morning that she won’t run for another term in the U.S. House of Representatives—but not before she got one last zing at the news media, with which she has had a famously testy relationship during her political career.
(An early bumper sticker in her congressional career said “Vote for Barbara Cubin. Annoy the Casper Star-Tribune.”)
After a blistering attack on the Democratic majority in Congress and Democratic candidate Gary Trauner, and a lengthy list of her accomplishments in Washington, Cubin noted the recent spate of news reports that predicted she would announce today that she’s not going to run for her eighth term.
“I am going to run again,” she said to a suddenly quiet roomful of Republican Central Committee members and assorted reporters. “I’m going to get this cast off my foot and get through physical therapy, and then I’m going to get in good shape again,” she said to rising giggles and laughs in the audience as they got the “gotcha” joke at the expense of the press.
She grinned, and then with a straight face said “My friends, my service in Congress will come to an end in January of 2009; I will not stand for re-election in 2008.”
Cubin said she looks forward to coming home to Wyoming to be “a friend, wife, mother, and especially a grandmother. I look forward to being a private citizen and a good ol’ Wyoming Republican. I look forward to watching a new generation of Wyoming Republicans assume the mantle of leadership in our state, and I relish the idea off never seeing another nasty headline about me again.”
After years of strong wins at the polls, Cubin managed only 60 percent of the vote in last year’s Republican primary to fend off challenger Bill Winney. She then held off Democratic challenger Gary Trauner in the general election by 1,012 votes in her closest victory yet.
“When it’s this close, you probably did something wrong,” Cubin said after the general election.
Cubin’s physician husband Fritz has been seriously ill this year, and she had a brother die as well. Cubin broke her foot in September. All of these health issues have given her the worst voting record in the House of Representatives, of a living representative—missing almost half of all votes cast in this session of Congress. (There are worse records in this session, but those are held by representatives who have died in office, according to a Washington Post database.)
In Cubin’s comments prior to her announcement that she won’t run for re-election, she said that Trauner had once said “I’m against any war when I don’t know what we’re fighting for. I don’t know why we’re over there.”
Cubin declared, “I know why we are over there. We are over there to prevent more 9/11s from taking place in our country,” even though the 9/11 Commission ruled that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.
“We cannot let Gary Trauner win,” said Cubin. “He is wrong for Wyoming, wrong for America, and I know we won’t let him win.”
In an aside from her prepared comments, Cubin said that if Trauner “had any courage,” he would know why the U.S. is in Iraq.
Contacted for comment, Trauner said it was disappointing that Cubin would chose to attack him on the day she’s announcing her retirement from public life.
Cubin, 60, was first elected to the House in 1994 and is serving her seventh term. She has not voted since Oct. 25, when she voted to uphold President Bush’s veto of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program bill, which had been expanded by the Democratic majority.
Three Republicans have announced their intention to seek the GOP nomination for the U.S. House—Bill Winney, a retired naval officer, Kenn Gilchrist of Casper and Swede Nelson of Cheyenne. State Rep. Colin Simpson of Cody said last spring he intended to seek the nomination, but has yet to make a formal announcement.
Trauner, who last month had $168,000 in campaign contributions, faces a primary challenge from Al Hamburg of Torrington. Trauner was speaking to the Casper Women’s Forum today.
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Comments
now you can go after that slacker, Senator Tim Johnson from South Dakota!
Write articles that talk about his months of voting absences and declare him to be the worst in the Senate. Forget that he has been laid up for months because of his health concerns and give him no room for excuses!
Or does your condemnation only apply to Republicans?
Heaven forbid that she exit with class, graciousness, dignity or statesmanship. That's our Barbara, an extreme partisan through and through.
(Oddly enough, Sen. Mike Enzi enjoys most of his success by cultivating bipartisanship, crafting dozens of bills with that uber-liberal Ted Kennedy. Wonder how the political scientist historians will treat Barbara as opposed to Mike?)
Richard Pombo: Gone
Charlie "Chainsaw" Taylor: Gone
Conrad Burns: Gone
Rick Santorum: Bye Bye
JD Hayworth: Gone
Katherine Harris: See you later alligator
Jim Talent: Gone
George Allen: Gone
Bob Ney: Gone
Tom "No Time For" DeLay: Enjoy your retirement
Larry "Wide Stance" Craig: Going
Pete Domenici: Going
Barb Cubin: Going
Sure seems like Green has become the new Red, White and Blue.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Then of course tehre is the shutting certain areas of wheat farms in southern Wyoming to protect mice, but who needs bread right?
You will never convince me that those who want to shut down or cut back the production of food and fuel are the brightest bulbs on the string. Now if they cut back their use, that is a different thing, that will help without a lawsuit. No body is going to produce what they cannot sell.
Conrad Burns was not brought down by green issues, but by the perception of sleaze a la Abramoff. Same for Bob Ney who is now in the slam. George Allen? Macaca.
Craig? Bathroom caca.
Delay? More dirt. Not the "environment."
Domenici? Brain failure.
Harris? Never elected, and a crackpot besides.
You're reading too much into this, Matt, which illustrates the narrowness of your perspective.
In Marion's defense, the enviro opposition to the wind farm at Glasgow illustrates the sheer selfish hypocrisy of many environmental activists. The usual soundbite is a variation of "We don't oppose all (activity), we merely oppose it (location)."
I wonder, if the Divide Basin was ideal for solar farms, or wind, if the ecos would be howling about that as loudly as they are about natural gas production. I suppose we will find out, because someday, solar and wind providers might take a look at the gas infrastructure and say, hey, here's a way to get this other stuff on the line without a bunch of new roads, et cetera.
As for Barbara Cubin, she has made the right choice. The Red Star Tribunal never gave her an even break. Even now, they and the Gazette still use that ugly-52-Buick-grille mug shot, even though they certainly have more-neutral photographs in their files.
I'd say Barbara's opponents are going to learn they need to be careful what they wish for come January 2009.
A few mile long gas lines for $5. gallon gas may jsut elect a Republican president again. I see no way that obstructing greens can blame President Bush for the shortages that will occur thanks to green laws.
I'm not sure I'm following the logic here.
Face it Marion, your paradigm and that of the resource exploiters/hogs is coming to an end...and it's about time...although it may be 50 to 100 years too late. Green is the new red, white and blue.
If you are serious about cutting back, force house size way back, fill all swimming pools, ration gas. These would apply to rich enviros as well as commoners.
Fine. But wait, SOME of us in Wyoming are not at all upset with her lowest of the low voting/attendance records. SOME of us simply wish she'd not voted on ANY of the legislation she supported and/or opposed. Just stayed at home, totally~ Hey, from the get/go, this woman was/is the worst disaster this state has ever elected to office...period!