No wonder the vast majority of Americans are disgusted with Republican politicians. Those who voted them into office deserve whatever came down as a result.
Consider the case of Blake Farenthold. He’s the overwhelmingly sleazy Republican pol who represented Texas’ 27th Congressional District from 2011 until he was forced to resign in April after numerous reports that he used taxpayer funds to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit. When he resigned at the instance of House leadership, Farenthold pledged to reimburse the United States $84,000 in public money that he used to settle the lawsuit, but then he reneged on his pledge in May.
Yesterday, we reported on the antics of House Republicans as they tried unsucessfully to rattle FBI Agent Peter Strzok (https://www.apocryphalpress.com/2018/07/12/perez-taps-strzok-as-his-deputy/).
Yesterday's hearing was expressly designed by the House GOP leadership to divert attention from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the obvious collusion by Russia with Donald Trump’s highly improbable campaign, the likes of which we’ve never seen before.
It was theoretically presided over by House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, who looked like a partially grownup gnome, and House Judiciary Committee Chariman Bob Goodlatte, who threatened Strzok with contempt of Congress while shouting down the Ranking Member, Congressman Jerry Nadler (N-New York).
The hearing lasted ten hours, and CNN preempted Erin Burnett’s nightly Out Front show to continue showing the circus.
Rep. Louie Gohmert (TP-Texas) is a member of the Judiciary Committee. Gohmert is well-known to those who follow Congress for being a first-class nincompoop. He provides classic material to Trevor Noah, John Oliver, and Steven Colbert. In short, Gohmert is the most notorious boob in Congress. Unbelievably, he challenged Paul Ryan for his Speakership in 2015, with little real chance of success and only minimal support.
At yesterday’s hearing, Gohmert went after Strzok, demanding to know how he did or didn’t tell his wife about his infidelity with colleague Lisa Page. This drew virulent shouted objections from the Democrats on the panel. Check out the short video of Gohmert’s outburst at https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/12/fbi-peter-strzok-testify-trump-714977.
This is, of course, the Age of Bill Clinton and of sexual scandals ad infinitum in our Nation’s Capital.
As we reported yesterday, associate solitary reporter Melissa Smith covered the hearing. After its conclusion, she approached Gohmert, who did his best to avoid her, but all our associate solitary reporters are intrepid, which is why we pay them so highly.
“Congressman,” Smith demanded, “I found it very interesting that you went after Agent Strzok for his sex life — but in 2012, in a meeting of the House Natural Resources Committee, you stated your strong support for a trans-Alaska pipeline as a way for the caribou to have more sex.”
As Smith and Gohmert were talking, Farenthold, now a lobbyist in DC for all manner of hyper-conservative causes, approached them and insisted on joining their conversation.
“Louie,” Farenthold began, “you dumb s__t, you didn’t lift a finger to help me when Ryan forced me out, and then you rattle on and on about the sex life of caribous?”
Placidly, Gohmert responded, “Blake, as the song says, 'It’s All In the Game of Love.’"
Gohmert, who has absolutely no singing voice, slipped off into the night singing the famous 1958 Tommy Edwards song, as Farenthold tried to convince Smith that he was unfairly forced out by the #MeToo Movement.
Smith went back to her office singing John Fogerty’s song of political protest, “Fortunate Son.”
In London, Trump told Prime Minister Theresa May that she would get no trade deal from him because of her softened approach to Brexit negotiations (https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/13/politics/donald-trump-britain-brexit-theresa-may/index.html). Associate solitary reporter Johanna Jones was with May as she told Trump that he is persona non grata and must therefore leave the UK immediately, especially since his presence there has already drawn massive protests.
So much for our "special relationship" with the UK.