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Friday, October 13, 2023

Patrick McHenry in for his share of attention. Pro tem Speaker attention, and some commentators are critics.

 Swamp Thing - posted on Sirota's Lever. Howie Kline seizes the cudgel at DWT, and takes his own swings.

Salon has an earlier less pejorative narrative, stating in part:

McHenry has been one of the most completely shameless of House Republicans since his arrival in Congress, in 2005, when he immediately and publicly endorsed Tom DeLay's brilliant plan to exempt himself from ethics rules as his connections to Jack Abramoff began to end his career. But he was born to be cheerfully corrupt: He's a product of the College Republicans, an organization that trains little Lee Atwaters, Karl Roves and Grover Norquists in the arts of scorched-earth campaigning and wholly irresponsible "governing" on behalf of the monied interests that bought you your job. The ethos is win by any means necessary, legal or quasi-legal (or worse, as long as you never get caught), and McHenry was very good at that, according to Benjamin Wallace-Wells' memorable profile of the then-freshman in the Washington Monthly.

After the College Republicans, and a failed state legislature race, McHenry moved on to truly insidious conservative astroturfing/push-polling/communications firm DCI, then worked for Rove, then took a political appointment in the Bush administration, then moved to the district he now represents, where he started a real estate company that did not actually buy or sell any real estate, so that he could run for Congress as "a small businessman."

Once in the United States House of Representatives, McHenry personally intervened in a wild and bloody College Republican National Committee chair election, on behalf of a personal friend of his who'd become slightly toxic after he sent fundraising letters attempting to trick "elderly people with dementia" into donating to the CRNC. And he was successful!

Salon has a bad link intended to reach another item, perhaps this one about PMcH. 

That October, 2005 item was looking at the gentleman as a newbie in the House, saying in part:

He is co-chair for communications of the National Republican Congressional Committee, an exalted post that entitles him to help frame the national message for GOP candidates around the country. “He’s got an awful lot of promise,” House Majority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told National Journal for a profile headlined “Boy Wonder.” He has shared the stage with President Bush at the insurance industry’s annual convention. Both DeLay and the man who replaced him as House Majority Leader, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), have hosted fundraisers for McHenry, a rare privilege for a freshman. A puffy Weekly Standard piece praised McHenry’s “tenacity.”

When Newt Gingrich brought the Republican Party back to power in the House in 1994, he did it with a phalanx of gate-crashers–dentists, insurance agents, small businessmen–political rookies and ideologues, many of whom have recently been at odds with DeLay and the spendthrift House leadership. A decade on, the revolution has calcified into what is less an ideology than a system, a cluster of organizations that manage power and careers–a political machine. Like most of the post-Gingrich generation, McHenry’s ultimate loyalty is less to principle or ideology than to the machine itself.

Read all about this pro tem gem. "Loyal to the machine" he now IS the machine. Mention Gingrich and immediately there's a bad vibe, arguably an earned one in this case.

(What I know is what I read on the web. Unlike W.C. Fields, McHenry might love dogs and small children. Of that, the web seems silent. So I cannot say much that way either. The critiques make me imagine a new creature, a human being, pro tem.)