Subj: TAKE STOCK(man, Please!)!
Date: 06/19/96
I start with Article 6, section 3 of the Constitution of the United States of
America -
"3 The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the
several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers,
both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or
affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall
ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the
United States."
And now, from the *real* "liberal" media, the Houston Press, June - 13-19 -
1996 issue -
--------------------------
(TOC description - Stalking Stockman - Truth was the first casualty when I
visited Steve Stockman's combined home and political sweatshop. By Tim
Fleck)
{Quote - "We're not afraid of anything." - An unidentified whiny-voiced
Stockmanite. Photos - a picture of the headline of an article in the Houston
Chronicle of 6-7-96 - "CHARGES SOUGHT AGAINST REPORTER Trespassing Alleged At
Stockman's House", a picture of Tim Fleck walking up
to Stockman's house, caption - "Knock, knock, who's there? Fleck cautiously
approaches the threshhold of the Stockman compound.", and a picture
of a sign that says "God Bless You! Congressman Stockman")
INTO THE DEN OF STOCKMANIA
The Truth About My Alleged "Invasion" Of The Friendswood Congressman's One-
Stop Political Sweatshop And Homestead
By Tim Fleck
For just a moment, it seemed as if there might be at least one good man
laboring at Congressman Steve Stockman's political
sweatshop-cum-residence when I dropped in last week for an unannounced visit.
Several raps on the front door had summoned a lanky young
African-American volunteer named Booker T. Stallworth. Despite being
confronted by a stranger with a press I.D. card clipped to his shirt pocket
and a bulky Sony tape recorder and microphone slung over his shoulder,
Stallworth flashed an all-American smile and graciously motioned me in.
Judging by the fallout generated by those two or three steps forward, I might
just as well have landed on the front lawn of Stockman's Friendswood
home in a black helicopter.
Once inside, my rather limited tour of the Stockman compound lasted about two
minutes before I was ordered out by an officious young Stockmanite
who refused to identify himself and displayed a distinct aversion to cameras.
No physical contact, shouting or foul language occurred during the brief
encounter. Yet within two hours of my visit, Stockman's Capitol Hill office
began spewing press releases at taxpayers' expense that accused me of
trespassing and forcing my way into the congressman's residence and physically
assaulting his campaign workers.
"This is outrageous!" Stockman was quoted as huffing in one "updated" release
(headlined "Stockman Stalked by Trespassing Reporter"). "I have
called the Harris County Sheriff's Department, the Capitol Hill police and the
[U.S. House] Sergeant-at-Arms' office. I am pressing charges for
trespass and assault and battery."
Stockman's office even suggested that I had terrorized the congressman's wife,
Patti Bullock Stockman, assuring the world that she "was unharmed"
after my visit. That insinuation was especially outlandish, given that I never
laid eyes on Patti Stockman (who, incidentally, has a $58,000-a-year job
at the Johnson Space Center that presumably would have required her presence
on that weekday afternoon).
Stockman himself hastily caught a plane back from D.C. "to address the
emergency," according to his congressional flack Cory Birenbaum, and
while in flight called a talk-radio station in Beaumont to beat the drums
about the alleged home invasion. Birenbaum told another reporter that
Stockman already had complained to Friendswood police, one of whom, the
spokesman related, declared that he "would have shot the son of a bitch
dead." But the chief of the Friendswood force told another local reporter that
his department hadn't heard from Stockman.
The Stockman press releases alerted area media outlets, whose reporters were
soon sorting through the lies produced by the Stockman propaganda
machine and writing their own stories about the incident. Birenbaum tried to
peddle one whopper that I had crashed the Stockman-Newt Gingrich
rally at a Galleria-area (StanNote! outside of Stockman's district) hotel last
month by falsely claiming to be a reporter with the Associated Press. The
only problem with that was that the A.P. reporter and I had both bantered with
Birenbaum at the event, and clearly identified ourselves to him. I had
received a press credential to the rally after displaying my Houston police
press I.D., which bears the name *Houston Press* in large, hard-to-miss
letters.
The lies continued later, when volunteer Stallworth filed a complaint with the
Harris County Sheriff's Department falsely claiming that I had pushed
him and shouted and screamed during my visit. (The recording I made of the
incident shows the conversation never broke a sonic sweat.) The
sheriff's department punted the complaint to the district attorney's office,
where Johnny Holmes' top assistant, Don Sticklin, was investigating at
press time.
In retrospect, Stallworth's dissembling probably explains what a seemingly
nice guy like him was doing hanging with the Stockman gang. By inviting
me into Stockman's political nest, though, Stallworth did prove that he hadn't
absorbed a central tenet of the political consulting business.
Photographer Nicole Fruge' and I drove to Friendswood to do some on-the-scene
investigation of Political Won Stop, a business registered in
Brazoria County that operates out of Stockman's residence and has received
$126,000 in payments from the congressman's campaign since January.
One of the listed principals of the firm, Chris Cupit, just happens to be the
Republican nominee for tax assessor-collector of Jefferson County, a
position that has been vacated by Democrat Nick Lampson, who is now running
for Congress against Stockman.
Cupit apparently has no official campaign office of his own in Jefferson
County, raising questions about whether resources from his and Stockman's
campaigns are being comingled in the rather cozy spaces of the Whitman Way
residence. That would be a violation of federal election law. And *The
Hill*, a D.C. based weekly that covers Congress and first reported on the
Political Won Stop operation, has questioned whether Stockman's
campaign keeps the appropriately legal "arms-length" distance from the
consultants, whose phone number is the same as Stockman's and who
presumably use the facilities available to others in the Stockman household.
*Press* calls to the house and Cupit and partner Jason Posey (who had
identified himself as a Stockman "volunteer" to *The Hill*) went unreturned,
so the only option seemed to be an on-site inspection. After I followed
Stallworth into the living room of the Stockman domicile, I met several
volunteers who claimed Cupit was not there. But the 1995 Saturn that was
reposing in Stockman's driveway at the time is registered to Cupit. The
front of the intensely claustrophobic house, where windows might otherwise be
found, is sealed by planking, and the only vista to the street is a
pinhole in the worn wooden front door. It hardly seems a residence fitting for
a U.S. congressman, even one whose employment history prior to his
1994 election was rather spotty.
The living room, cluttered with campaign signs and literature, opens on the
right into a garage office, where Political Won Stop apparently does its
work. A hallway on the left presumably leads to some sort of sleeping
quarters, where Patti may or may not have been crouching in fear while I was
in the front room.
Upon my entry, Stallworth summoned a dark-haired young man from the garage
office, who proved far less friendly. "You'll have to leave," he
announced in a rather whiny, nasal voice. (The following day, the *Press*
called Chris Cupit at his home in Groves and discovered that he possess a
whiny, nasal voice identical to that of the man who ordered me out of
Stockman's residence. But perhaps everybody who works for Stevie whines. On
the phone, Cupit flatly denied being present at Stockman's house during my
visit. Before we could ask what his car was doing in Stockman's
Driveway, Dupit said he had to go but promised to call us back shortly. He
never did, of course.)
At the Stockman compound, the Cupit sound-alike denied that Political Won Stop
operated out of the house, but tried to change the subject when I
reminded him that Stockman's own campaign finance filings list the company as
based there. "I know, but we have rights, too, and you've got to
honor our rights," he whined. He seemed especially terrified that photographer
Fruge', who was just outside the front door with her camera, might get
a shot of his face. He tried to close the front door, and another volunteer
then slammed it shut and pressed his back against it, barring any exit. I
asked the head whiner what he was so afraid of. "We're not afraid of
anything," he insisted, rather unconvincingly.
After being ordered once more to leave, I replied, Well, fine, open the door.
And don't hide too much. You guys are pathetic." And with that, my
alleged "invasion" of the congressman's castle was over. Minutes later,
several young Stockman volunteers drove up, and I asked them to locate
Chris Cupit for me. Once inside the house, they didn't come back out before
Fruge' and I departed.
Fruge' took a few more shots of Fort Stockman from the street while I went to
interview neighbors. Birenbaum would later claim she took photos
through the windows of the Stockman abode. The problem with that particular
lie is that there are no windows accessible from the front yard to take
photos through.
A woman who lives next door to Stockman seemed surprised to learn that the
bustling political office also housed a U.S. Congresseman and his wife.
"No, I do not know him," said Hanan Zadeh, when asked if she had had the
pleasure of meeting Steve Stockman.
Zadeh - who, unlike the boys next door, did not hesitate to identify herself -
seemed unperturbed by the continuous stream of people coursing in and
out of Stockman's alleged residence.
"We know this is just temporary for election time," she explained. "It's not a
problem."
But depending on how the money paid by Stockman to Political Won Stop is
actually used, it could be a big problem for the Freshman Prince of
Friendswood in the not-so-distant future.
--------------
"We're not afraid of anything."
They certainly aren't afraid of *god*!
Stan
============
Subj: It's Cupit, Ma'am, Not Stupid!
Date: 07/21/96
More from the "Liberal Media", from the 'Houston Press' June 20-26, 1996
these are pieces of -
---------------------
The Insider - compiled by Tim Fleck
TALES OF CUPIT (RHYMES WITH STUPID)
The squirrelly adventures of Congressman Steve Stockman's frat-house band of
consultants who call themselves Political Won Stop seem to know no
limits. *The Hill*, a Congress-covering weekly in the nation's capital, first
revealed that Stockman's re-election campaign had paid more than
$126,000 to the consultancy, which is owned by 26-year-old Chris Cupit and
25-year old Jason Posey and is listed on the congressman's campaign
disclosures as having the same Whitman Way address as stockman's combination
home and election headquarters just outside Friendswood. More
recently, *The Hill* reproted that the address Political Won Stop used on its
DBA filing in Brazoria County is a rental beach house at Surfside.
Always up for a summer jaunt to the Gulf, The Insider motored down to Surfside
over the weekend to discover that the rent house, which is named
the Hide-a-Way and sits just down the road from the Money Pit, was vacent. On
our return, we talked to the owner of the Hide-a-Way, Houstonian
Diane Hensley, who rented the house in the off-season to Cupit from last fall
to early spring. Hensley, a Stockman supporter and unsuccessful
legislative candidate this year, says she's known Cupit for two years and
isn't surprised he listed the home as his place of business.
The Hide-a-Way certainly is an appropriately named location for a business run
by the secrecy-obsessed Cupit, the Stockman operative and GOP
nominee for Jefferson County tax collector-assessor whom we encountered on our
unannounced visit to Stockman's home/campaign office two weeks
ago. Cupit refused to identify himself and hid his face when a *Press*
photographer approached. It's apparently typical behavior from Cupit, judging
by the account of an advertising sales type who tried to sell the Stockman
campaign some bumper stickers two days before we ventured into the grip
of Stockmania.
The salesman says he contacted the Stockman headquarters "and got ahold of a
man who wouldn't identify himself except by his first name, Chris."
It took the salesman two weeks to get an appointment with the mysterious
Chris, and only under circumstances that seem lifted from a spy novel.
"He would not give me the address of his headquarters," recounts the salesman,
"and he asked if I would meet him on the parking lot of the Burger
King in Baybrook Mall." (Stockman's home/office is located in a subdivision
behind the mall.) When the salesman finally rendezvoused with "Chris,"
the Stockman flunky again refused to give his last name but expressed interest
in the batch of see-through, peel-off "Stockman for Congress"
stickers the salesman had brought along to demonstrate. Chris refused to allow
the salesman to put one of the stickers on his car and instead insisted
they be handed over for future inspection, presumably by the congressman. At
one point, Chris displayed a trace of envy by allowing that he wished
he could afford the see-through numbers for his own campaign.
The salesman is still chuckling over the encounter. "I'm in my early
seventies, and I've done business in Houston for over 35 years. It's the first
time
I ever made a sales pitch on the parking lot of a Burger King!" (He was later
shown a photo of Chris Cupit and positively identified the stealth
candidate as the phantom of the Burger King.) Their meeting was two weeks ago,
and now the salesman can't get through to Chris. "The guy who
answers the phone, who's a nitwit, says, 'What is this regarding?' Then he
says, 'I don't know if he's here.' I say, 'Come on, kid, you're in a house and
you don't know who comes through the front door?' "
Cupit also hasn't acquired much name identification in Beaumont, the seat of
the county where he wants to be the head tax collector. When The
Insider went on a Beaumont call-in show last week to debunk the false claims
by Stockman that we had assaulted his campaign workers and
terrorized his wife, the radio host, Jack Piper, was unfamiliar with Cupit and
his candidacy. During Piper's show, we played an audio tape of our
encounter with the Stockmanites at the congressman's home, wheich included our
repeated question, "Is Chris Cupit here?" Afterward, a
hard-of-hearing pro-Stockman caller rang up to chastise the liberal media for
"calling people stupid." Why, she asked, did we have to call them
stupid? Piper had to gently correct her: "It's Cupit, ma'am, not stupid."
==========
Subj: Fleck Gets an 'E' (of the 'RWLTPC') (one whos job it is to destroy
anyone or anything that goes against the 'RWLTPC') !
-----
>From the Houston Press, July 4-10 issue, Letters section -
-----
The Stockman Welcome Mat
Having read the latest in your series of articles and "exposes" on Congressman
Steve Stockman, I have a few questions and observations for you:
Do you expect Stockman or his staff to welcome you into his home with open
arms when everything you've ever written about him has been decidedly
negative? Your stories and the tone of your paper are antything but objective.
You can't abide or report objectively on anything or anyone who is
Republican, nor can you ever report anything unfavorable on a Democrat.
You went to Stockman's place with your mind made up as to what you were going
to write. You refer to all his staffers as whiny. To me, you are the
ultimate whiner.
Jerry King
Houston
==========
Subj: More 'Take Stock(man), PLEASE!'
>From the Houston Chronicle, 7-21-96 -
------
STOCKMAN MOURNS DEATH OF 'SUPPORTER'
Alan Bernstein, Politics
U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman of Friendswood did not immediately try to put a self-
serving political spin on last week's TWA jetliner tragedy.
He waited almost two days.
On Friday afternoon, reporters received a news release on Stockman's
congressional stationery. It expresses the congressman's deep sorrow that
Houston victim's rights advocate Pam Lychner was killed in the explosion and
crash off Long Island.
The document, an official communication from Stockman's publicly funded
operation in Washington, D.C., was headlined "STOCKMAN
SUPPORTER DIES IN TWA TRAGEDY/ VICTIMS' ADVOCATE MADE TV AD FOR STOCKMAN."
With direct quotes from Stockman, the news release lauded Lychner for her
criminal justice reform work.
"Pam was a friend who will be dearly missed by my wife Patti and I," said
Stockman's written words. "Pam Lychner did a campaign television ad for
me in 1992. I got to know her and her story. She was a woman of uncommon
courage and inner strength and that is how I will remember her."
Stockman's top aide, Cory Birenbaum, said the news release was not a political
exploitation of a grim event.
"We are just trying to point things out that affect" the congressman,
Birenbaum explained. "It's simply to regret the fact that a personal friend of
his
passed away."
To say the least, written statements from Stockman and Birenbaum have been
controversial lately.
In June, another official news release from Stockman carried the headline
"STOCKMAN STALKED BY TRESPASSING REPORTER."
It told Stockman's version of a visit to his home and campaign headquarters in
Friendswood by a reporter for the Houston Press, at a time when
Stockman was in Washington.
Stockman sought criminal charges against the reporter. The district attorney's
office refused to file the charges. The reporter then filed a libel suit
against Stockman.
Birenbaum was the focus of national publicity recently for a private letter he
wrote to a Texas Monthly reporter after the magazine ran an
unflattering profile of Stockman.
The letter said the writer got her magazine job "for reasons I would refuse to
speculate upon in polite society. Hope your knees have healed up
nicely."
Birenbaum said he meant that the writer had to beg for employment, not that
she performed a sex act. ...
