The press release:

Peter LaBarbera, founder of Republicans For Family Values (www.rffv.org), urged potential Supreme Court pick Elena Kagan , Republican Reps. David Dreier and Patrick McHenry, and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist — each the subject of wide speculation that they practice(d) homosexuality — to answer the question: ‘Are (or were) you a practicing homosexual?’

“In an era of ubiquitous pro-gay messages and pop culture celebration of homosexuality, it’s ridiculous that constituents should be left guessing as to whether a judicial nominee or politician has a special, personal interest in homosexuality,” LaBarbera said.

[...]

“Especially in the wake of the Eric Massa (D-NY) and Mark Foley (R-FL) scandals, these men need to honestly answer the question about whether they are or were practicing homosexuals,” LaBarbera said. McHenry is getting married in June, but that does not settle the question, as there is a history of “closeted” homosexuals entering into sham marriages to cover up their illicit lifestyle, according to LaBarbera.

[...]

The Foley scandal demonstrates the political dangers for Republicans of covering up for covertly homosexual members. Duplicitous homosexual legislators can become extortion targets or be pressured to make pro-“gay” votes like Dreier on ENDA. But generally, constituents have a right to know if their representative secretly practices any immoral behavior — including homosexuality, but also if he is a skirt-chaser, gambling addict, etc.

“We appeal to Kagan, McHenry, Dreier, Crist, and all potential “hiding-in-the-closet” politicians or appointees to answer the question: ‘Are (or were) you a practicing homosexual or do you consider yourself homosexual (gay)?’Homosexuals’ privacy interests simply do not outweigh the public’s right to know about potential conflicts-of-interest in the lives of their representatives and judges,” LaBarbera said.

Delahunt D-MA, Lungren R-CA, Altmire  D-PA, Kanjorski D-PA, Rohrabacher R-CA, Walberg R-MI, Baldwin  D-WI, Matheson D-MA, Sanchez D-CA, Sutton D-OH, Israel D-NY, Putnam R-FL, Schwartz D-PA, Tanner D-TN, Duncan R-TN, Upton R-MI, Wasserman-Schultz D-FL , Johnson D-TX, English R-PA, Johnson H D-GA, Buchanon R-FL, Chandler D-KY, Bauchus R-AL, Butterfield D-NC, Levin D-MI, Peterson D-MN, Nadler D-NY, Smith C R-NJ, Cohen D-TN, Inglis R-SC, Serrano D-NY, Miller, J  R-FL, Pallone D-NJ, Hastings D-FL, Maloney R-TX, Gonalez D-TX, Capps D-CA, Klein D-FL, Cole R-OK, Yarmuth D-KY, Petri R-WI, Waxman D-CA , LaTourette R-OH, Miller, G  D-CA, Ramstad R-MN, Foxx R-NC. Space D-OH, Welden R-FL, Garrett R-NJ, Davis, D  D-IL, Issa R-CA, Ferguson R-NJ, Blackburn R-TN, Roskam R-IL, Schiff D-CA, Murphy T  R-PA, Towns D-NY, Thornberry R-TX, Diaz R-FL, Rangel D-NY, Reichart R-WA, Sherman D-CA, Hoekstra R-MI, Chabet R-OH, Shimkus R-IL, Bono R-CA, Boren D-OK, Napolitano D-CA, Neal  D-MA, Wexler D-FL, Ehlers R-MI, Jones, S   D-OH, Meeks D-NY, Sali R-ID, Young, D  R-AK, Berman D-CA, Carson, Engel D-NY, Kings R-IA. Starke D-CA, Baca D-CA, Cubin R-WY, Walz D-MN, Platts R-PA, Radanovich R-CA, Keller R-FL, Hall, R R-TX, Moore D-KS, Smith, A R-NE, Watson D-CA, Barton R-TX, Barrett R-SC, Carnahan D-MO, Weiner D-NY, Davis, L  D-TN, Waters D-CA, Deal R-GA, Johnson, T   R-IL, Clay D-MO, Fortuno R-PO, Reyes D-TX, Buyer R-IN, Kucinich D-OH, Brady, K   R-TX, Doggett D-TX, Hinojosa D-TX, Moore, D D-KS, Norton, E  D-DC, Bordalla D-GU, Cardoza D-CA, Bachus R-AL, Lipinski D-IL, Johnson S   D-OH, Royce R-CA, Burton R-IN, Graves R-MO, Mack   D-NY, Pence R-IN, Cuellar  D-TX, Camp, Meeks, Manzullo, Capito, Gohmert, Gallegly, Lewis, R, Fallin, Miller, C, Jackson, L, Wilson, C, Brown, W, Diaz-B, Rush, Westmoreland, Bilbray, Solis, Costa, Schakowsky, Schmidt, Clarke, Herger, Ryan, P, Sanchez, L, Poe, Bachmann, Becerra, Velazquez, Filner, Gutierrez, Jordan, Sessions, McCotter, Smith, Ad, Campbell, Price, T, Christensa, Goodlatte, Linder, Nunes, Thompson, B, Richardson, Sensenbrenner, Tiberi, Faleomavagea, Tsongas

Remember, not a few years ago McHenry tried to have the government spend over $129,000 on a “Perfect Christmas Tree” pork barrel project — a project to give money to people who make Christmas Tree decorations. McHenry may pretend to be a Republican, but he sure as hell spends like a Democrat — or even worse.

Except it was a deliberate lie.

According to the Pulitzer Prize winning PolitiFact, McHenry’s statement is 100% false. Frances Deviney, senior research associate at the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Texas, says it best: “The short version is that what [McHenry]’s saying doesn’t correlate with the data”. In Texas, the location McHenry was looking towards in regards to his statement, counties that had higher vote tallies for Republican John McCain (who McHenry attacked in the 2008 election) have slightly higher participation rates in the census. On top of that, a Pew study showed that a higher percentage of Republicans (90%) than Democrats and independents (85%) said they intend to participate in the census.

The long story short? Patrick McHenry deliberately lied and made Republicans look bad. Thanks!

Patrick McHenry.

That’s right. You can read the whole article here, but the gist of it is that McHenry likely did add him intentionally. Of course, this brings up two big questions- why McHenry thinks it’s a good idea to be adding nutjobs on Twitter, and why he’s spending so much time browsing a stupid social networking website instead of working.

The story is fairly simple: Patrick McHenry’s fund sends out questionnaires to Conservative candidates, checking how conservative they are. Recently, they awarded Senator Sam Caligiuri their endorsement over Republican challenger Justin Bernier. This means that Caligiuri was the “better” Republican. But get this- it was an unfair set-up. Caligiuri’s general consultant, Evan Kozlow, was the man checking the questionnaires. And Caligiuri’s opponent, Justin Bernier, was told to send his questionnaire into Caligiuri’s staffer, meaning if he did, it would have been torn up and “lost”. The entire thing was a set-up where Caligiuri could not lose.

Of course, the American Conservative Union is angry at McHenry and his PAC. McHenry’s staffer, Parker Poling, admits he did it, meaning the whole McHenry team knew this was going on. Of course, they say that Kozlow, Caligiuri’s staffer, was left out of the process. You know, everything except making sure his opponent’s questionnaire got where it needed to go.

The best part?

“We took every conceivable step to make sure that the process is fair, and Patrick makes all the decisions,” Poling said.

You read that right: Patrick McHenry made the decision to stack the game and make sure Caligiuri won. Is Caligiuri the better candidate? Who knows.

This is yet again an example of Patrick McHenry working not for his district or for the good of the American people, but an attempt to play career politician and to ensure his buddies up in Congress and the Senate keep their jobs, regardless of how they perform. McHenry is corrupt, his PAC is corrupt, and everything around him is corrupt. This is the kind of behavior that is destroying the Republican party.

he didn’t know his name was on the steering committee list and that he did not give anyone permission to use it for this year’s election. He said he recalls being placed on McHenry’s steering committee list for a prior campaign. “But this time is obviously different,” Norman said. “We have a board member running against him (McHenry) and I just don’t think it’s right to endorse someone else. They (McHenry’s campaign) didn’t call me about this year, but if they did, I would have told them, ‘no.’ “

But that is not the only false statement released by the McHenry campaign. Earlier this week, McHenry sent out another flyer touting his accomplishments. In that flyer he claims he voted against the Congressional automatic pay raise – but as noted in earlier articles, that was not true. McHenry must think he is so popular with the voters that he can say or do anything with impunity. He certainly sounds like some other politician that has been in the news lately with a financially crippling health care bill that promised things that we are now finding out are false!

So what is our “hard working” Congressman proposing?

My plan is simple:

Stop making the problem worse by issuing an immediate cease-and-desist order on new taxes and regulation.

Restore investor confidence in our economic future by confronting our deficit.

Reduce the price of doing business in America by increasing our energy supply and lowering business taxes.

Evaluate our foreign trade agreements to make sure that they are fair.

And strengthen the retraining programs across North Carolina’s community college system so that those who want to work our prepared to.

Sound good? Let’s look at the details (or lack thereof).

Immediate cease and desist order on new taxes and regulation. Ironic, considering McHenry just proposed a bill seeking to create another government committee that involves hiring more federal employees and spending more money, which requires more taxes. And, of course, McHenry has yet to draft or co-sponsor a single bill to do anything close to helping our debt. McHenry has done nothing about the debt in his five years as Congressman, and even now, when the people in his district are starving, he’s not going to do anything.

Restore confidence by confronting the debt. Of course, this means nothing. McHenry has done little but sit around as the district has gone down the tubes, and even accepted a $4,700 pay raise, lied about it to try to pretend he voted against it, and then ignored his district when it got incredibly angry about it. He’s doing nothing but taking more money from the government’s pockets.

Increasing energy supply and lowering business taxes. Naturally, McHenry gives no details or proposed legislation. Would he consider drilling off of the NC coast, wind turbines in the mountains or on the coast? He’ll never say – and remember, he’s had five years in Congress to do something about this and he has yet to even give us an idea. Even when given the opportunity to protect us from wild fluctuations in gas prices, McHenry, as usual, voted to support his campaign contributors, not his constituents.

Evaluate foreign trade agreements. Of course, we have no idea what McHenry thinks “fair” is. Remember, this is the man who thought it was “fair” to cheat and have a staffer commit voter fraud to win an election. And, like the above, he has no examples of what he wants to do- just empty words.

Strengthening community college retraining programs. In Western NC, one of the biggest problems is the lack of jobs. Educating the unemployed is commendable, but even an advanced degree does not create a job where one did not exist before. Throwing tax dollars at schools hoping they make jobs is stupid. Remember, the biggest factor in the economic collapse has been the greed in the financial markets and the lack of oversight of the banking and housing markets by McHenry’s congressional committees. With his experience and “power” in Congress, McHenry has done virtually nothing to justify his service to the 10th District, nor to do anything to create jobs within the district.

What does this flyer teach us? Patrick McHenry is only interesting in telling his district vague lies, because Patrick McHenry only interested in his own welfare—not his constituents.

According to his websites, Patrick McHenry is a member of the “powerful” House Financial Services Committee, “which deals with legislation related to banking, insurance and real estate.” Since McHenry is a “powerful member”, doesn’t that make him pretty responsible for Congress’ part in the banking/real estate collapse? Should he have not at least worked to prevent this crash, or at least mention some of the issues beforehand?

Patrick McHenry also claims that as a member of said committee, he “plans to capitalize on western North Carolina’s strong ties to banking in order to bring new financial services jobs to the district.” Have you noticed new “financial service” jobs – or any other jobs – created in the 10th District recently? One thing we do know for sure, McHenry has received thousands of dollars in contributions from banking and real estate interests during his tenure in Congress. The only “capitalizing” he’s done with NC’s strong ties to banking have been to line his own pocket. No matter how Patrick McHenry spins it, the citizens of the 10th District are far worse off now than when he took office in 2005.