The House Republicans' new odd couple-- with whips, no lessOne of the all-time silliest congressional debuts was made by bombastic little North Carolina closet case Patrick McHenry in 2005. He went to school at a Benedictine monastery that doubles as a religionist "college," Belmont Abbey. He was president of the Young Republican Club there and made a name for himself by dressing up like Abe Lincoln and waving a sign that read "Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?" somewhere near a Bill Clinton appearance. A couple years later he started and ran a website called notHillary.com, for which Bush rewarded him with a sinecure at the Department of Labor. McHenry had previously worked for Karl Rove on the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign and he was eager to get to Washington and make a name for himself. An unimpressive and diminutive figure he started bragging that he would be the model for how Republicans should vote and vowed to never vote with the Democrats. Although his 1.86 lifetime ProgressivePunch crucial vote score is pretty horrible, there are now several dozen Republicans with even more right wing voting records, including Eric Cantor (1.41), who was just disowned by the party for not being right-wing enough.McHenry took a more garden variety conservative approach after several career threatening scandals. He seems to have made a deal with the devil and was given a seat on the very lucrative HouseFinancial Services Committee, which he has used to further his ambitions by taking $2,068,336 in legalistic bribes from the finance sector he's supposed to be overseeing.Yesterday at this time, Steve Scalise, the new GOP Whip-designee, appointed the clownish, bowtie-wearing McHenry his chief deputy-dawg. Under Scalise and McHenry, the senior whip team is made up of Kristi Noem (SD), Dennis Ross (FL), Aaron Schock (IL), Steve Stivers (OH) and Ann Wagner (MO), a lackluster team of hawkish right-wingers. Like McHenry, Schock is also a closet case and Stivers' normally quiescent office was shaken up by a scandal involving photos of his chief of staff's penis. Schock was widely expected to get the Chief Deputy Whip job but he's a "confirmed bachelor" and McHenry found a beard and married her.When Chad Pergram, a reliable reporter who covers Congress for Fox News, tweeted out the news before it hit the transom, I took the opportunity to share a couple of good-natured laughs at McHenry's expense, especially when he mentioned how Scalise, seeking to calm Schock down, mentioned that McHenry's role as Deputy Whip "gibes him the invaluable experience, insight and judgment to help me lead." Wow! Where does he think he's leading the crackpot House Republicans to? It wasn't long after McHenry was elected that he was implicated in a string of Republican gay murders. That's what happens when you get too involved with gay escort service, I guess.The murdered gay Republicans include Ralph Reed's purported ex-lover, Ralph Gonzalez (former head of the rabidly homophobic Georgia Republican Party), David Abrami and McHenry guy-pal Robert Drake, the shooter. All three were found last week in a murder-suicide in an Orlando apartment. According to right-wing website, the North Carolina Conservative "All three men were active in Republican politics." They mention that Drake is "an associate" of McHenry's but don't define that. McHenry is alleged to be an associate of quite a few younger men, some of whom are gay and some of whom are just gay-for-pay.
Gonzalez was an influential political consultant, who owned Strategum Group, and managed Congressman Tom Feeney’s 2002 campaign. The house was owned by Gonzalez; Abrami lived with Gonzalez. Newspapers and political websites have been abuzz with posts from friends and associates of Gonzalez, who speculate the motive for the murder-suicide as being a gay love triangle gone wrong....Another, more sinister motive has been put forth by several sources, including CrimeBlog.us. Reports there say that Drake was associated with the owner of a gay escort service in the Virginia Beach area. The owners of that escort service are facing charges that they murdered the owner of a rival company catering to the gay community. A source for the Crime Blog reporter states:“My solid, but unconfirmed, sources say that Drake was trying to hit Gonzalez up for cash to raise money to defend a kid (Harlow Cuadra) who is on trial for murder up in Pennsylvania. The 26 year old “kid” ran a gay escort and porn business in Virginia Beach and may have had several Republican clients–Drake being one. (See www.norfolkmaleescorts.com and www.boybatter.com). . . My sources say Drake may have approached Gonzalez for funds for Cuadra’s defense, threatening to blow the lid off everything by MAKING THE REPUBLICAN CLIENT LIST OF THE GAY ESCORT BUSINESS PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE.”
There are jailed Republicans, dead Republicans, outed Republicans... And McHenry's office... well, when I called McHenry's congressional office, the guy who answered the phone confirmed that Drake "worked" there but said he didn't know what his duties were. When I asked to speak to the congressman or someone who would know, he put me on hold, then came back, audibly upset, and said he was mistaken and that he didn't know anything and no one else was in the office and then quickly hung up on me. The murder was completely covered up by the Orlando police department and everything about it pretty much disappeared.In 2012, McHenry's primary opponent, newspaper publisher Ken Fortenberry, showed up at a McHenry town hall and started peppering him with questions about McHenry's overt corruption on the House Financial Services Committee. Nothing phased the smug little McHenry until the end of the meeting when Fortenberry pulled out the photo of McHenry's murdered love, Jason Robert Drake (below). He asked the startled McHenry if he could deny any knowledge of the murdered ex-Marine. McHenry, looking like a rainbow flag, stammered and stuttered, said nothing intelligible and the meeting came to a screeching halt. I guess Scalise didn't look into it-- or didn't care.McHenry is fond of rough trade
