DOWNLOADS: (474)

PLAYS: (4450)

Embed

We all saw what happened the last time Elizabeth Warren testified before a Republican-led House committee: She was repeatedly called a liar by the committee's chairman -- a bank-financed wingnut, Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina -- that day, including on a CNBC appearance before the hearing.

Now Republican Rep. Darrell Issa wants her to come back for a full day's grilling:

Issa's letter said he wanted to question Warren again to give lawmakers more time to grill her. He cited her "unwillingness to provide direct and responsive answers to a number of important questions" at last week's hearing, according to the letter.

The California Republican asked her to clear an entire day in June for the hearing. The hearing would be Warren's third appearance before a GOP-controlled House panel this year.

"The American people have a right to know how you intend to organize and operate the CFPB," Issa said in the letter.

Warren, for her part, played it cool:

Warren "looks forward to her next appearance before the committee," said Jennifer Howard, spokeswoman for the consumer bureau.

"As the former chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, Professor Warren appreciates the importance of and value in checks and balances," Howard said.

Warren has Republicans so freaked out that they're refusing to adjourn so that President Obama can't make her a recess appointment. Mitch McConnell thinks she "could be a serious threat to our financial system".

And they know they already have the complicity of the Beltway media in hand -- since the McHenry smear was treated by the press as just another political tiff, as CJR's Ryan Chittum explains:

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (488)

PLAYS: (7648)

Embed

Evidently Elizabeth Warren gets under Rep. Patrick McHenry's skin in a big way. Maybe it's the forthright way she asks questions. Or perhaps it's her ability to be tough and female at the same time. Whatever it is, he stepped way over the line today when he called her a liar for not waiting around to testify for absent Republicans.

Ms. Warren appeared for her hourlong testimony as she had previously agreed to, but 2 Republican committee members were strangely absent. Perhaps they were courting their Wall Street friends, or visiting the House floor to vote on another job-killing bogus repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Whatever it was, Warren had other places to be, and Rep. McHenry did not like that one bit.

So he called her a liar. On the record. On television. The backlash has been swift and direct. Some samples from his Facebook page:

Absolutely uncivil, unbecoming behavior on your part to call Elizabeth Warren a liar. Not surprising, however, coming from someone who serves alcohol to minors, not to mention things far worse. To hope for your resignation would be far too much, but you should apologize at the very outside.

How much does a Wells Fargo prostitute get paid these days?

Disgusting performance with Elizabeth Warren. You should be ashamed of yourself. It makes me sick when the bought accuse the honorable.

New Rule: When you have lost your credibility, your ammo, the argument, indeed the entire battle, don't even think of calling the victor,l a Harvard professor who is building a much needed consumer protection agency, a LIAR. You Fools on the Hill are losing your minds..

And get this: This wasn't the first time yesterday McHenry had called Warren a liar. Earlier in the day, he had gone on CNBC's Squawk Box with Becky Quick and had accused Warren of lying about the nature of her advice to the consumer-protection agency:

DOWNLOADS: (474)

PLAYS: (4450)

Embed

QUICK: You think she was less than accurate in some of the testimony that she gave earlier.
Why don't you explain that to us?

MCHENRY: First of all, she's testified multiple times that in terms of the mortgage settlement, she was simply an adviser. She was giving advice. Well, now it's clear and it's been publicly released that they put together a PowerPoint presentation on the terms of the settlement. Now, in terms of advice, it seems the result was that it's the explicit outline of the settlement agreement that we're hearing about in the press. I question the veracity of her former testimony in relation to the reality that we now see in terms of the release of this PowerPoint presentation with the terms of the settlement.

QUICK: You think she was lying when she testified she was only an adviser because there's a PowerPoint settlement that has the terms of some of these agreements?

MCHENRY: Sure.

Continue reading »

Good gravy...they've got an airport, a highway, the largest federal building in Washington DC and a freeway and that's still not enough honor for those Gipper-worshiping acolytes:

(S)ome of the late president's admirers are launching a new effort to add another honor: printing his likeness on a $50 bill in place of Ulysses S. Grant's.

In polls of presidential scholars, Reagan consistently outranks Grant, said Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), who introduced legislation to make the change.

But at least one Democrat who serves on the House Financial Services Committee, where the proposal has been sent, isn't ready to jettison Grant for "someone whose policies are still controversial."

"Our currency ought to be something that unites us," said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks).

They never stop finding ways to keep throwing Reagan up as some weird conservative messiah (never mind that they sneer at Obama for being messianic). In fact, there is a peak near me called Mt. Diablo. A man--who professed to object to the obvious satanic overtones of the name--has been trying to get the county to rename it Mt. Reagan. Thankfully, the county has so far been unpersuaded.

I've never really gotten the rosy-eyed nostalgia for Reagan. I came of age during Reagan's presidency, and I don't remember things being all that great for most Americans. I do remember being concerned about the cognitive powers of the president when he played dumb for reporters during the Iran Contra scandal, a fear that was--in retrospect--not entirely unfounded. I remember thousands of developmentally disabled individuals dumped on the streets of California, when Governor Reagan turned the mental hospitals over to the Correctional Department, leaving families at a loss as to how to care for them, and the number of homeless in California shot up. I remember watching friends get sick and die of a new and mysterious disease that Reagan wouldn't even acknowledge by name. I know there's a lot of mysticism surrounding "It's Morning In America" meme, but does that really make all these numbnuts forget the massive deficit spending they clutch their pearls over now? Do they forget Iran-Contra when waxing rhapsodic over the end of the Cold War?

Sorry, Grant has his detractors, but I'd much rather keep him on the $50 than give Reagan this particular honor.

The Nation has more on the truth of Reagan's legacy. If you're a Facebook denizen, you may want to join the group "JUST SAY NO" TO RONALD REAGAN ON A $50 BILL OR ANY CURRENCY - EVER!

TIME Magazine: Republicans in the Wilderness: Is the Party Over?

The most urgent question is the meaning of economic conservatism. Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, a conservative who keeps a bust of Reagan on his desk, surprised me by declaring that the Reagan era is over. "Marginal tax rates are the lowest they've been in generations, and all we can talk about is tax cuts," he said. "The people's desires have changed, but we're still stuck in our old issue set."

I give it one day. Once Rush mentions it on the radio, McHenry will be bowing and scraping before his altar.

Is there any case to be made for bipartisanship when Republicans openly say their goal is to destroy and not construct? The latest example: More Republican Destruction Politics from Rep. Patrick McHenry.

Greg Sargent writes:

GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry, a key player in helping craft the Republican message, has offered an unusually blunt description of the Republican strategy right now.

McHenry’s description is buried in this new article from National Journal (sub. only):

"We will lose on legislation. But we will win the message war every day, and every week, until November 2010," said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., an outspoken conservative who has participated on the GOP message teams. "Our goal is to bring down approval numbers for [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and for House Democrats. That will take repetition. This is a marathon, not a sprint."

McHenry’s spokesperson, Brock McCleary, tells me his boss is standing by the quote.

McHenry’s description of his party’s goal — to “bring down approval numbers” for Nancy Pelosi and House Dems — is being much talked about today among Congressional Dems. It’s likely that Dems will grab on to the quote today to bolster their charge that Congressional Republicans aren’t interested in playing a constructive role in governing and see their hope for political revival in the eventual failure of the Democratic majority’s policies.

Warren Buffett has been sucked into the bipartisanship nonsense, even though he backs Obama and tells the country to get behind him, but the CNBC crowd is all excited that he's against unions.

Ryan Powers writes:

Despite how “blunt” McHenry’s pronouncement may be, it is a widely held view among House Republicans. In fact, McHenry is echoing the sentiments of the House Republican leadership. Steve Benen explains the implications of such positions, writing, “If we take McHenry at his word, Republicans can’t be constructive, they necessarily have to be destructive.”

Messaging is such an important dynamic in political discourse, unfortunately, and it's really the only thing Republicans are good at. They certainly can't govern.

You can see how easy it is for conservatives to get Republican talking points into the mouths of Villagers.

The Cook Political Report (subscription req'd) has looked at 30 congressional races and upgraded them for the Democratic Party. Many of these races are in heavily entrenched Republican areas, but it's clear that the prevailing attitude towards the GOP and the great work these Democratic candidates have been doing (often with help from the netroots) has put a whole bunch more of the House in play:

AL-03 Mike Rogers Solid Republican to Likely Republican
CA-46 Dana Rohrabacher Solid Republican to Likely Republican
FL-08 Ric Keller Likely Republican to Lean Republican
FL-09 Gus Bilirakis Solid Republican to Likely Republican
FL-18 Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Solid Republican to Likely Republican
FL-21 Lincoln Diaz-Balart Likely Republican to Lean Republican
ID-01 Bill Sali Solid Republican to Likely Republican
IN-03 Mark Souder Solid Republican to Likely Republican
IA-04 Tom Latham Solid Republican to Likely Republican
KY-02 OPEN (Lewis) Solid Republican to Likely Republican
MN-02 John Kline Solid Republican to Likely Republican
NE-02 Lee Terry Solid Republican to Likely Republican
NV-02 Dean Heller Solid Republican to Likely Republican
NJ-05 Scott Garrett Solid Republican to Likely Republican
NY-13 OPEN (Fossella) Toss Up to Lean Democratic
NY-25 OPEN (Walsh) Toss Up to Lean Democratic
NC-10 Patrick McHenry Solid Republican to Likely Republican
OH-07 OPEN (Hobson) Solid Republican to Likely Republican
PA-03 Phil English Likely Republican to Lean Republican
PA-05 OPEN (Peterson) Solid Republican to Likely Republican
PA-11 Paul Kanjorksi Likely Democratic to Lean Democratic
PA-15 Charlie Dent Solid Republican to Likely Republican
TX-07 John Culberson Solid Republican to Likely Republican
TX-10 Michael McCaul Solid Republican to Likely Republican
VA-05 Virgil Goode Solid Republican to Likely Republican
VA-10 Frank Wolf Solid Republican to Likely Republican
WV-02 Shelley Moore Capito Likely Republican to Lean Republican
WY-AL OPEN (Cubin) Solid Republican to Likely Republican

Leave it to a wingnut Republican to post a video from inside the green zone after an attack. I would think that's a no-no, but I'm not a Republican in Congress.

The Pentagon told a North Carolina lawmaker Tuesday that he couldn’t re-air a video he'd shot in Baghdad after accusations surfaced that he breached operational security in detailing enemy rocket attacks. Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Republican, traveled to Iraq with other lawmakers for the first time on March 22. The video was the second incident stemming from that trip that has drawn unwanted attention to McHenry.

I wonder if he had on his lapel pin? Here's a golden oldie?

(posted on January 11th, 2007)

Barney came down on McHenry for breaking the rules and trying to implement an amendment. It's a new dawn in the House and the Republicans will not like it all that much…

Download | Play Download | Play (h/t Mark)

He cracked me up when he said his past behavior was not relevant…Hilarious.

Last December, Republicans in Congress introduced a resolution noting the significance of Christmas and the Christian faith, which eventually passed, blurring the lines between church and state -- and they're at it again, attempting to rewrite American history and further the lie that America is a Christian nation.

Via Secular Coalition for America:

Jan. 11 - Flush with last year's success in passing H.Res. 847, "Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian Faith," Christian nationalists -- those who would have the United States be governed as a Christian theocracy -- are pushing H.Res. 888, another resolution which promotes a false and distorted Christian nation reinterpretation of our history. Generally, we do not take action regarding resolutions because they are ceremonial in nature and express the non-binding opinion of one chamber. They do not have the force of law. Read on...

The resolution, which is supported by the likes of Reps Patrick McHenry, John Doolittle and Mean Jean Schmidt, calls for an "American Religious History Week" and rejects any attempt to remove religious messages or teachings from our public buildings and educational resources. There can be no doubt that during an election year, Reps voting against the resolution will be labeled anti-religion, but we can't let them be bullied into signing this flawed resolution that goes against the very principles our country was founded on. Contact your Representatives and tell them to say no to H. Res. 888, (corrected) which further blurs the separation between church and state.

Is the conservative Congressman Patrick McHenry the latest to fall in a sordid sex scandal?

Pam's House Blend has the story and audio of the tangled story.

On the House floor, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) chided his fellow congresspeople for their wasteful ways...

  Download | play Download | play

So you be the judge on the "worthiness" of this project that McHenry pushed for:

SF Gate:

The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved $153 million in pet projects, rewarding both powerful and not-so-powerful lawmakers alike with 377 cherished "earmarks" for their home districts.[..]

Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., won $129,000 for the Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree Project, an economic development initiative in economically distressed Mitchell County. The money would double retail space available for a gift shop selling products - typically made by former factory workers whose plants have been shuttered - such as Christmas tree ornaments, handmade soaps and pottery.

McHenry is a vocal conservative and burr in the side of Democrats running the House. He's not popular with some Republicans; a senior GOP member of the Appropriations Committee pointed McHenry's earmark out to reporters, calling it "interesting."