NY's 25th Congressional - Ann Marie Buerkle: Not Who She Seems!

           Nurse Ann - Nurse Ratched - More than a passing resemblance!

I find Ann Marie Buerkle to be a contradiction.

She was a head nurse who became a lawyer. She was an Assistant State AG, based in Syracuse's Upstate Medical University, who took on insurance companies and deadbeats alike. She did pro bono work for her law firm. Buerkle gives out this vibe that she is soooo maternal, that she cares for puppies and little children, and yet she is a great enemy of healthcare, pro-choice, the Department of Education, has voted to defund various initiatives that provide jobs, and security. On the House Oversight Committee she participates in Daryl Issa's project of finding out which regulations businesses would like to do away with.


Perhaps a little of her  FOX bio which sounds strangely similar to her NPR bio might help out:

Ann Marie Buerkle was born in Auburn, N.Y. Buerkle received a nursing degree from St. Joseph's Hospital School of Nursing in Syracuse. She later worked at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City and as a substitute school nurse.

She went back to school to earn a law degree at Syracuse University at age 43 in 1994.

She became an assistant New York state attorney general in 1997, representing the state on behalf of Upstate Medical University in Syracuse.

Buerkle resides in Syracuse, N.Y. She has six children.

It goes on to give her campaign profile:

Ann Marie Buerkle is a tea party-backed candidate and is a newcomer to state and federal politics. Polls have shown Buerkle making inroads in the 25th District against freshman Rep. Dan Maffei, one of eight Democrats in the state at some risk of being toppled.

Buerkle is running as a fiscal conservative, arguing that the federal government "should have a limited role in our life." She wants lower taxes and reduced regulations for the private sector and to get "the government out of the role of creating jobs.

But I find this to be most significant:

Buerkle has not ruled out backing a proposal to privatize Social Security, and said she'll push to repeal the March 2010 health care overhaul. She wants competition across state lines for medical insurance to keep a lid on costs.

So, she hates big government, but private fiefdoms and highway robbers who are free to exploit the serfs? That's okay!

And now, Buerkle who in her campaign promised not to make abortion a central part of tenure in office, is suddenly the darling of the anti-abortion movement.

First, Buerkle, who was elected by the skin of her teeth in a district which has only 50% support for anti-abortion legislation, has the hubris to deliver a speech on the House floor about restricting abortions in federal law. And then, she signs on as a co-sponsor of H.R. 3, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," which would permanently ban federal subsidies for abortion services. Did I mention that it would also cut off federal tax credits and subsidies for health insurance plans that include abortions? On the same day, she co-sponsors another bill that would change health care reform law to get rid of federal subsidies for abortion.

And of course, Mrs. Buerkle, from a 50% pro-choice district, has the nerve to attend an anti-abortion rally in Washington D.C.

Among the supporters is U.S. Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, R-Onondaga Hill, who addressed the rally Monday. It was the first time a Syracuse-area member of Congress spoke to the group in more than two decades.

'I’m Ann Marie Buerkle from the great state of New York,' Buerkle said to cheers from the crowd. 'After spending 30-plus years in the pro-life movement, I am so proud to stand here among you.'

Buerkle, one of more than three dozen members of Congress to speak at the rally, told the marchers to stick to their principles in the fight against abortion. 'You are the heart and the soul of the pro-life movement,' Buerkle said to applause. 'Don’t give up. Keep on fighting. Understand the difference you make in this country. We are blessed to have you here today.'

At the end of her one-minute speech, she added, 'Thank you for your commitment to the right to life, the most fundamental right that we have.'

Except when our dear Representative from New York's 25th voted to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood because they help facilitate the choice of abortion without government assistance, not only did she miss the target along with the rest of the Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, but she voted to end funding for health assistance for poor women, as well as the best preventative of abortions - contraception! But Buerkle, ever the Mother Bountiful, always touts her nursing and pro bono legal experience as signs of how well meaning she is.

Yes, her heart bleeds for aborted fetuses, but when poor parents need assistance for their children, she is willing to leave them to the greater wisdom of the local community to take care of them.

Well, at least she was true to her word when she voted to repeal Healthcare. She stated her beliefs in her debate with incumbent Dan Maffei:

We need to defund it. We need to repeal it. And then we need to enact true healthcare reform, which is torte reform. That's how we are going to keep the cost of healthcare down. This bill, and the fear of the lobbies, they didn't address torte reform, they didn't make health savings accounts more useful, expand the amount that people could put in to them to spend. They didn't make insurance portable, they didn't make insurance accessible over state lines. To increase, to make the patient the consumer. That's what we have to do on healthcare.

And so, along with her bosses John Boehner, and Eric Cantor, the Honorable Representative from New York's 25th, did her GOP duty and voted to repeal healthcare. Compassionate Nurse Ann, counselor to battered women, pro bono lawyer, Carer For Our Community, not only voted to leave us in the Wild West of healthcare, but as she stated, is willing to shiv fellow lawyers for doing - pro bono cases!

Now our dear Annie has always presented herself as quite the Tea Partier.

Here she is once more in that debate with Dan Maffei:

Well, I think obviously the Tea Party is a big player this year in this election. The Tea Party is made up of people who are not particularly trustful of the Republicans or Democrats. They feel that government has gotten too big. They feel that the government spending is out of control, and they feel that they're losing their freedoms because of the legislation that's been passed over the last 20 months. For them, healthcare was the tipping point. That's really what enacted, it was this arrogance of Washington telling them: 'We know what's best for you. We're going to pass this healthcare bill.' against their wishes.

My, that sure sounds populist!

Well, here let's find another quote in this paragraph:

The problem that I have with it, is that Dan consistently maligns and talks about people in the Tea Party as if they are extreme fringe. The Tea Party is made up of good American people who love their country, just like the people, the rest of the people in this district. And because they don't agree with Dan, and they think that we should restrict the spending and the power of the federal government, they're crazy. They're right wing ideologues and that's not true. There should be, there should be a place at the table for everyone with their views and their positions.

Well, it may interest members of the Tea Party to know, that on the one question where they rose up in opposition to the GOP House leadership, extending  various provisions of the Patriot Act, Buerkle voted "Yes." So far, for two months, Buerkle has consistently voted for the leadership position.

But the story gets even more interesting when you take a look at one of Buerkle's campaign contributors.

Elliott Management is a couple of hedge funds run by Paul Singer. And who is Paul Singer? I'm sure he considers himself a legitimate businessman, but debt management experts consider him a "vulture fund" manager.

You see, he buys up the bad debt of struggling countries like the Congo, where according to Conde Nast's Portfolio.com:

Singer’s main claim to notoriety is Elliott Associates, a $10 billion New York-based hedge fund he founded in 1977. It is Elliott’s affiliation with Kensington International, a so-called vulture fund (which represents about 1 percent of the hedge fund’s total business), that has led many to claim that Singer has bright red skin, a very long tongue, and a forked tail. He’s part of a new generation of investors—the vultures—who buy up the defaulted debt of developing countries on the cheap, then sue to recover 10 or 15 times what they paid for the notes. It’s a very good business, if you don’t mind being attacked by Congress, mauled in the press, and treated as a pariah by the do-gooders leading the global anti­poverty movement.

Well, the fact is, our dear Representative Buerkle has accepted funds from at least 21 Good Samaritans from Elliott Management. None of them come from the 25th District!

One comes from Stanford, Connecticut. Others come from New Jersey. And the New Yorkers come from nowhere near CNY! Some even come from Great Neck and Forest Hills!

Another interesting thing about Mrs. Buerkle's benefactor is that his public spirit may have been motivated by spite.

Elliott Management had opposed the GE estate liquidation and reorganization because it claimed to have "helped avert" GE's demise, and, through the agency of Jack Abramoff's old firm Greenberg & Traurig, it tried to persuade the judge not to accept the plan.

They failed. GE was one carrion they wouldn't get a hold of.

So, I guess they paid for a Congress that could prevent that kind of thing from happening again.

And that's the way I see Ann Marie Buerkle. She affects the pose of a Bountiful Mother, yet she's mercenary enough to double cross her Tea Party friends when the leadership wishes it, and she doesn't really look carefully at who her benefactors are. She'll lull you into a false sense of security by downplaying an issue close to her heart, and spring it on you at an anti-abortion rally, and picking on Planned Parenthood.

Then, again, a person like Ann Marie Buerkle isn't really a contradiction at all. We know the story.

ADDENDUM: Not long ago, I added That's Our Gal, who turned me on to the Elliott connection to my blogroll!