Bouncing Back : Rep. Hunter Wrote Bad Checks but Many Voters Don’t Want to Hear About It

The politician went out to face the music on Monday, sitting there at a card table with all 407 checks laid out before him, rubber checks that were honored through the tradition-steeped graces of the now-defunct House bank, a perk of his post as a congressman.

And there, at the base of the East County Courthouse in El Cajon, U. S. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-San Diego) took heat. Plenty of heat.

But hardly anyone mentioned the checks.

They pounded him, these 50 people, about the economy. About the cost of health care. About free trade and jobs being lost overseas. One lady was worried about the federal management of back-country grazing lands. And there was the woman complaining about a Social Security foul-up.

But hardly anyone pressed him on those 407 checks.

“The media is knocking this all out of proportion,” said Pete Caltagirone of La Mesa, who offered his unconditional support for Hunter by waving his hands in hey-don’t-worry-about-it fashion.

And so it went Monday, with Hunter fielding more roses than raspberries from people who sounded almost like shills than affronted taxpayers.

Even the more critical comments were softballs for the six-term congressman, who had the highest number of bounced checks of the California delegation. “As far as what I could read in the papers, you didn’t do anything abusive,” said Nance Holland of La Mesa. “But when the story broke, you were extremely arrogant about it.”

Answered Hunter, “I’m one of the few guys who didn’t blame someone else. I used to run a gas station, and I know what a bad check is.”

Hunter turned to others in the small group. “How many people thought I was passing bad checks?”

Several hands went up, and Hunter offered his explanation, about how the House bank simply gave him and other members of Congress free overdraft protection, and how none of the 407 checks he wrote, for about $129,000, actually bounced because of insufficient funds. The bank simply covered his checks until his next paycheck was deposited, he explained.

Hunter then promised that he would never again receive free congressional perks. “From now on I’m going to pay for my parking space, the gym, ambulance service--which I hope I don’t ever need. We have to live by a higher standard.”

He would repeat that promise every half hour or so, like some radio news station recycling the day’s best headlines and quotes, for the benefit of newcomers to the knot of people who came up to his folding card table.

One of the first men to pull up a chair alongside Hunter was Rick Tavares of Campo, who said he was curious about this whole check thing.

“Take a look,” Hunter said, offering him a stack of the checks.

“Oh, not necessary,” Tavares said, declining a firsthand look at the checks in question--like ones to May Co. and JC Penney and Domino’s pizza and a big one for more than $20,000 to an oil-drilling company.

Mark Smith, an El Cajon man dressed in suit and tie who said he once worked in the correspondence office of the Bush White House and now is development director for Volunteers of America, complimented Hunter for his “straightforward” approach in handling the controversy.

He likened Hunter’s direct talk to Tylenol’s reaction to news that its product had been tainted by taking the medicine off the shelves.

Someone wanted to talk about free trade agreements. Another man was worried about too many San Diego jobs being lost because of the bad economy.

Margaret Cowen of Lakeside asked Hunter how he felt about term limits. “I have a term limit every two years,” he laughed. But she didn’t say a thing about the checks scandal.

“Oh, I’m not too concerned about that,” she said. “It’ll resolve itself. I’m more upset about other things going on.”

For Mike Garrison of El Cajon, the check scandal served as a segue for a larger issue. “I’m not so worried about all these checks as I am about just one--the $1.3-billion bad check Congress writes every day to cover the national debt,” he said.

“You guys are all going to be blown out (of office) unless you do something about that. You need to stop spending.”

Hunter answered that he was one of Congress’s most conservative voters and added, “Sir, I’ll take your concern to heart.”

“Ha!” Garrison responded indignantly.

Garrison said later he was resigned that nothing could be done about the House bank scandal, so he hadn’t confronted Hunter about it. “My God, they’re above us all. We’re just peasants. What good does it do to be critical? The only place you can get your revenge is in the voting booth. And the only thing that will happen is that maybe this man will not be reelected.”