Here's some of what he's done and said:
1. His first act when he reached Congress was to introduce HR 4157, "Sanctity of Human Life Act," which defines human life as beginning with fertilization. It had 61 cosponsors and was referred to the Judiciary Committee, where it died. He reintroduced the bill in Jan 2011; and with Republican control of the House now, look for it to make it out of committee.
2. He proposed federal legislation that would have made 2010 "The Year of the Bible." Didn't happen either -- but, again, control of the House has changed since then.
3. In 2009, Braun spoke at the John Birch Society's black-tie gala in Atlanta and clearly spoke their language, referring to the supposed conspiracy of the "New World Order" that would subordinate our nationalism to global interests. He claimed that President George H. W. Bush was involved in this. And he clearly wanted them to think of him as in sync with them:
"The John Birch Society is trying very hard to get the right people elected to Congress. There are very few of us --very few."4. He distorted a report from the CDC that said Americans aren't eating enough fruits and vegetables, calling it "socialism of the highest order" where the government tells you what to eat.
Well, they didn't teach much about nutrition in my medical school either -- but this isn't just ignorance. This is either pandering or paranoia. After all, the CDC's mission includes "prevention" as well as "control" of disease. Proper dietary advice seems well within that mandate. But to Braun, not only is this socialism, but he then confuses socialism with totalitarianism.
News for Braun: Health advice is not fascism.
5. He seems fixated on that, making news recently when, instead of sitting in the House chamber for Obama's State of the Union address, he sat in his congressional office twittering his running comments -- claiming that Obama "believes in socialism." On another occasion, he called Obama a "Nazi-like Marxist dictator."
Is it too great a leap to think that a Braun fan might ask at a rally, "So who's going to shoot him [get rid of him for us]?" That's the tone of the question and Braun's non-answer. (Yuk, yuk.).
6. But the scariest of all is this -- because he now has some power in this area: In June 2010, to explain his vote against climate change legislation, Braun claimed in debate on the House floor that
"Climate change is nothing but a 'hoax' perpetrated by the scientific community,"This is scary because Rep. Braun is now Chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the House Committee on Science and Technology. That gives him the power to hold hearings and call witnesses to discredit climate science -- or any other politically inconvenient truths. And there are plenty of kooks out there who will grab the spotlight he gives them to spin out bogus science and to distort the story of hacked-into emails of British climate scientists, purporting to "prove" that they were "fixing" the data. That story has been investigated and debunked by four different groups, including the British government. But look for it to resurface in his hearings -- and the sound bites and distortions will be amplified by the Beck, Limbaugh, Fox unholy trinity.
Our best hope is that Braun overplays his hand and that the ranking Democratic member of his subcommittee, Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) is able to exert some influence, such as demanding her own list of witnesses and using whatever parliamentary and persuasive tactics she can.
From reading her online bio, she seems capable and savvy, an attorney who has worked in both the public and private sector for good causes -- but she's pretty new to Congress. They both are: he came in 2007 and she in 2008. And I'd put my money on her being a lot smarter than he is. But he will have more powerful connections in the current House.
Ralph
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