Oh, Goober. Stupidity is no excuse for using your PAC money to take a cushy trip to England for the sole purpose of spreading hate and loathing abroad.
In a filing with the Office of Congressional Ethics, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) claims that Gohmert may have violated House rules by charging nearly $6,300 to his campaign account for the late November trip. Members are barred from using campaign funds to cover personal expenses.
Gohmert spoke to several groups during his stay in England, including the Cambridge Union Society, the Rothermere American Institute, a group from Parliament, and one of “the most elite female high schools in the U.K.,” according to his campaign report.
Gohmert charged $5,400 for a luxury hotel in London to his campaign, as well as nearly $400 for another hotel in Oxford, in his year-end campaign report, CREW noted. The campaign also picked up a $234 charge for a taxi service.
Gohmert's office issued a typically ignorant response. I guess he really is stupid after all.
Gohmert’s spokeswoman said the Texas Republican’s trip to England was political in nature, and therefore, using campaign funds to cover the trip was allowable.
“Congressman Gohmert was invited in November to participate in a series of events in England to make political speeches including London, Cambridge and Oxford,” said Kimberly Willingham, Gohmert’s communications director. “Though most of his talks were political in nature, some might have been arguably official, but he chose the safer route of making it a political trip and so official funds were not used. House Ethics prohibits the use of official funds being used for events that are political in nature; therefore, I am not entirely sure what the fuss is about.”
Unless Goober was elected to the House of Lords, he's still an American representative in the Congress. Spreading ideological offal all over the international landscape doesn't qualify as making political speeches, and certainly not official ones. Does he think Texas became part of the United Kingdom while he was sleeping one night?
