Republicans against Patrick McHenry

According to the Statesville Record & Landmark, Patrick McHenry is having a hard time keeping afloat financially, and is begging his e-mail list for donations:

According to the most recent report McHenry filed with the Federal Election Commission, his campaign has $71,501 of cash on hand. But its debt is listed as $265,000.

[...] “I need to raise $25,000 over the next 24 hours to send a strong message to the Democrats,” McHenry’s e-mail reads.

McHenry needs money not because he’s “fighting democrats”- in fact, he needs money because he spends excessively, including, but not limited to, $700 concert tickets and $4,000 meals. Despite his debt, he also managed to spend over $70,000 in donations to various party needs, which generally means he “loaned” other campaigns money. Patrick McHenry, in the last time we’ve checked, had spent over $10,000 on the Capitol Hill Club, a ritzy club in DC that has nothing do to with his campaign.

Why does Patrick McHenry need money? Because he spent it all!

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Looks like Patrick McHenry has some explaining to do. In a recent self-promoting flyer he sent out to constituents (costing an insane amount of tax dollars for absolutely no purpose other than to promote an already elected official), McHenry claimed that he obtained $1.5 million dollars in federal funding for a “drug surveillance program based in Lincoln County.”

According to Lincoln County Sheriff Tim Daugherty, no such program exists. You read that correctly: even the sheriff of Lincoln County is coming out against McHenry. In fact, Tim Daughterty never knew about such an amount- instead, it went to some of McHenry’s buddies as a “Defense Contract”.

In fact, the money will never be used in any way to battle illegal drugs in Lincoln County – or the United States for that matter.
The $1.2 million was never even sent to a local agency.
It went to a Catawba County company, IOMAX, USA, in the form of a Department of Defense contract. (See related story, page 1)

Of course, McHenry staffers are pretending it never happened. Because he hasn’t done THAT before.

Baffled by the claim, the sheriff’s office called McHenry’s office in Washington and a staffer named “Alexis” said she “didn’t have a clue” about the $1.2 million claim, according to the sheriff.
Alexis Rudakewych is a legislative assistant to McHenry.
Sometime later Rudakewych called Daugherty’s office back and said the $1.5 million actually was obtained at the request of Sen. Richard Burr, R-NC, but McHenry signed onto the spending bill as a cosponsor.

So after Rudakewych was caught in a deliberate lie, she comes back and says that McHenry had no part in it!

The truth is the money never went anywhere near Lincoln County- rather, it is being spent to monitor cell phone conversations to possibly maybe sorta figure out what people are doing in poppy fields in Afghanistan. The money never intended to protect Lincoln County, nor anywhere else- it was just going to a techie group to listen to Afghani conversations.

Fighting drugs in Afghanistan is one thing, but battling them in Lincoln County is another, says Sheriff Daugherty.
“If they really wanted to make an impact why didn’t they make the money available to Dean (Abernethy, chief of the Lincolnton Police Department) and me?” said Sheriff Daugherty.

Relevant Articles:

Sheriff Daugherty Says Rep. McHenry Lied About $1.5 Million in Funding For Drug Fight

Patrick McHenry’s Deliberate Deception

Little-Known Local Company Gets Millions in Defense Department Contracts

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Has anyone else noticed that Patrick McHenry is paying to put Anti-Johnson ads up during repear episodes of What Not To Wear? Is he trying to advertise for political minds or just attract homosexual men?

For those of you who are interested, the airing in which it was shown was the night of the 17th of October, at approximately 11:30 or so- late night. Evidently, a large percentage of McHenry’s voterbase is insomniac gay men with a taste for fashion.

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More information about McHenry’s involvement in the whole economy crisis- you know, other than taking exorbitant amounts of money from banks and now being mysteriously missing to finance hearings:

After viewing Patrick McHenry’s political ad smearing his opponent, I was shocked. McHenry doesn’t want to tell people about his record. He wants to throw mud at a worthy opponent.

Having served two terms on the Financial Services Committee of the House of Representatives, Patrick McHenry defended subprime lending even after economists cautioned that the risk to the economy was great.

McHenry favored deregulation policies while at the same time accepting $800,000 from financial services companies AIG, Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Who do you think McHenry really represents on this committee?

Of course, the irony here is that he has been speaking out against fixes:

“I didn’t go to Washington to frivolously spend your dollars,” McHenry said.

“The challenge here is figuring out what is actually happening with the financial industry.”

He then launched into a short explanation about mortage backed securities and their effect on Wall Street.

The congressman railed against the bailout and advocated a free market solution, citing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as a model.

Ironically, McHenry has not only been wasting political campaign funds (donated by supporters such as his listeners at this speech) on expenditures like $700 rock concert tickets,but he’s also talking ridiculously about what he doesn’t understand- McHenry’s “free market solution”, while generally admirable, is mainly about deregulating abusive banks (that donate to his campaign)- which even Alan Greenspan is beginning to say he was wrong about.

Of course, we here at RAPMcH have nothing against free market economies- but when fat cats up in Washington such as Patrick McHenry use the concept of a free market to protect shady bankers who use golden parachutes to escape the financial crisis before it crashes, we have an issue. That kind of economy is not a free economy, it’s an unfair economy- an economy made unfair by people like Patrick McHenry.

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Patrick McHenry has been screaming his head off about how he doesn’t like the government’s bailout plan. Of course, this is just pretty much expected:

“The fact is we can provide the needed support to the markets, while maintaining our duty to protect the American taxpayer, and ensure that those who made serious mistakes are not rewarded,”

Mistakes? Oh, like subprime lending mistakes and stuff? Somewhat ironic.

Patrick McHenry has taken over $800,000 from the Banking industry, says the Democrats in a new press release. That’s right- the man has taken over $800,000 from subprime lending companies. Don’t believe the Democrats? I don’t blame you- but the numbers are entirely accurate.

Not only has McHenry taken big money from the industry, but before the crisis he was complaining about “too much regulation” on the banking industry. Naturally, because he was getting big bucks from banks outside of his district, he wanted to protect them from nasty Mr. Government preventing them from doing things bad-

In an October 27, 2005 op-ed in the Charlotte Observer, at a time when modest regulation of an out-of-control industry might have prevented the current crisis, McHenry praised the subprime industry and argued against ‘burdensome regulations’ on such lenders. Now we’re all paying the price.”

And look what happens when we don’t have enough restrictions! We’re now in what is close to the biggest banking crisis in the history of the United States!

Thanks, Patrick! Your habit of taking money from banking industries and literally doing nothing regarding the signs of failure on the Financial Services committee has led us to this crisis!

Just so you know, in this crisis, Washington Mutual has failed and is now controlled by the government, various smaller banks have apparently failed, and now Wachovia, one of NC’s biggest banks and employers, might fail. You better make sure your money is safe, lest McHenry jeopardize your savings!

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Recently, the news hasn’t been so nice to Patrick McHenry. I wonder why.

In the Morganton News Herald, McHenry was lampooned for his “Town Hall Meetings”, where he failed to provide an actual solution to Energy- rather, it seems, the “meetings” were just staged political rallies where McH stood up and parroted how he was fighting for gas prices- ignoring how he voted AGAINST regulating the Oil industry. They posted another article to this effect when he voted against regulation.

On News@Norman, not only was an editorial posted about how John McCain would be better without McHenry (including how McHenry mentioned he would be “physically ill” at the thought of McCain for President), but also an editorial attacking McHenry on how he accepts thousands of political interst dollars and votes against the interests of the district. Needless to say, it seems like people are angry.

Of course, McHenry has his own way to fight back- a poorly made ad talking about how McHenry is “fighting for us”. Since when? If that’s true, I’d like some of that $25,500 he took from Oil companies before he voted against regulation- I could use it for beer.

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Apparently, Democrat Daniel Johnson must read this blog (or someone’s aware of it)- the NC Democratic Party decided to pick up where I left off noting McHenry’s doublespeak regarding oil prices with a new press release, noting, among other things:

-McHenry voted “no” to requiring oil companies to drill on the 68 million acres that they already hold leases for, which could produce 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily (H.R. 6251, 6/26/08). Drilling on these public lands could double U.S. oil production and cut oil imports by one-third.

-McHenry voted “no” to cracking down on oil speculators that artificially inflate the price of oil (H.R. 6604, 7/30/08).

-McHenry voted “no” to releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (H.R. 6578, 7/24/08). Each time the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has been tapped or deposits suspended, the price of oil has dropped by at least 19%.

-McHenry voted “no” to tax credits for investment in alternative energy (H.R. 2776, 8/4/07).

-McHenry voted “no” to cracking down on gas price gauging (H.R. 1252, 5/23/07).

-But McHenry says “yes” to $25,500 in campaign donations from oil and gas companies.

Now, it kinda sucks to have Democrats picking up on this, but there is something to be said about what they are saying. Despite all this talk about Democrats blocking proper oil legislation, the only thing McHenry has done with the oil industry is take their money.

Nowadays it can take over $100 to fill up a decent sized truck. Thanks, McHenry!

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Even after being featured in news@norman and The Hickory Daily Record, Patrick McHenry and his cronies are STILL editing our favorite online encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

You would at least think they would pretend to do it quietly.

From the Edit Record:

1. User “Potus128″ tries to add the laughably titled blog “Patrick McHenry Rocks!” to the list of links.
2. User “Ystava” decides to make it more “NPOV” (“Neutral Point of View”) by removing anything negative about McHenry… and adding a quote that essentially means “Daniel Johnson can’t win!”.
3. After a long hard revert battle over a few days with Ziegfest, Ystava decides to edit using his IP- the same one used that Wikipedia admins got angry at for removing huge chunks of information- the very same internet address that tried to remove McHenry scandals such as the “green zone video” This is, as we stipulated, possibly Jason Deans.
4. “Potus” reappears, same edit as “Ystava” and the IP.
5. Same deal, same “Jason Deans” IP.

(Note: “Ziegfest” is a reader of ours returning our site on here, considering our coverage and our attempt to keep balanced and sourced material)

Lessons to be learned from this?

1. Patrick McHenry is spending far too much time on the internet. Sure, our readers are too, but McHenry is using staffers- you know, the ones not working to better the district.
2. Wikipedia has been good to us. I appreciate the users fighting hard to keep our site up. We try to remain as fair and balanced as possible- and we always are up for comments if we are wrong. We aren’t a “unfair biased blog”- we’re a group of individuals looking to point out truths- not delete them from online encyclopedias.
3. We won’t back down. The truth hurts. Even if it’s a Republican, it’s important to tell the truth- as our Mothers told us back in the day. I don’t care how much it hurts to admit it, it is always best to tell the truth if you mess up rather than to try to hide it. I learned this in gradeschool when I stole cookies- McHenry hasn’t yet.

Anyway, we’ll keep close eyes on it. We’ve helped “Ziegfest” send in a request for the Wikipedia admins to check it out- so keep your eyes peeled.

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When Patrick McHenry was asked why he donated his campaign over $170,000 (a donation which made his campaign funds larger than his opponents), he claimed that it was a “personal investment in his fight for good jobs and lower gas prices.”. So what’s McHenry been doing in Congress?

A few days ago, Patrick McHenry decided to vote against H.R. 6604, the Commodity Market Transparency and Accountability Act. This act, in essence, requires recordkeeping and holds foreign boards of trade to meet specific US requirements, such as access to electronic trading systems. As well, it directs the GAO to do an investigation into the “regime” that manages energy commodities- in layman’s terms, figure out why the hell gas prices are so high, and make sure the foreign oil barons aren’t tricking us. The worry is that people overseas are manipulating gas prices, which is why it’s so expensive to fill up nowadays.

Of course, anyone can see that it’s a reasonable bill- and 61 Republicans supported the bill, leading a huge majority of 276 to 151. Unfortunately, it wasn’t passed- you need two thirds vote- and guess who didn’t vote for it?

That’s right, Patrick McHenry. Unwilling to work with “them dimmercrats”, McHenry decided that Western Carolina could suffer higher gas prices as he literally made sure the discussion died down.

Of course, McHenry got angry that the Democrats picked up on this, and then tried to create more discussion (because he wanted to start the discussion, presumably) and came out swinging complaining about how a 5-week vacation was declared.

Long story short? McHenry refused to actually vote for a solid energy exploration bill that would have conservatively examined the oil issues we have today, and instead opted to allow foreign oil barons to manipulate our gas prices (through the “Enron Loophole”) and enjoy their big profits as normal American families struggle to afford everything from groceries to transportation.

Oh yeah, and McHenry has recently gotten $58,000 from the oil industry toward his campaign.

Thanks, McHenry!

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Republicans have long stood for hard line financial management- we’re often the proverbial bankers of the world, reigning in excessive spending and working to manage finances in a world where Americans dig themselves deeper into debt. Sometimes, though, some Republicans tend to treat money like water- and it shows.

Patrick McHenry was planning to champion his own fundraising ability until the Lenoir News-Topic picked up on a very interesting tidbit of information: Patrick McHenry has been loaning himself money to the tune of $175,000, in an addition to a $90,500 loan made from his first campaign. That’s right, folks: while gas prices are rising and the world struggles in intense debt, McHenry has been loaning his campaign more money than many make in 5 years.

But the big question is where the money’s been flowing. Rebecca Yount, one of McHenry’s “spokespeople” (McHenry never talks to the press himself), claims that the money is “personal investment in his fight for good jobs and lower gas prices.” Is that true?

According to Open Secrets’ Page on Patrick McHenry, McHenry’s money hasn’t been going to Western NC at all- in fact, most of it is spent on lavish meals and payoffs to other campaigns. I’m not kidding. To this author’s knowledge, the most Patrick McHenry has ever spent in Western NC has been at the prestigous Lake Hickory Country Club, for $503 (excluding payments made to employees/rent/glossy mailers/etc).

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So where has McHenry been spending his big money? Here are some of the bigger numbers:

$45,838 - Paid to The Oorbeek Group, for “Fundraising” (evidently not going so well)
$62,471 – Paid to The Stewart Group, mainly for “Planning & Development”. Of what?
$33,288 - Paid to Wiley Rein, LLC, for legal retainers. If you’ll remember, this is after he was potentially linked to an NRCC money scandal- so that’s “cover your butt” money.
$16,000 – Paid to Revolution Media Group for “Planning & Development”. Of what?
$12,000 – Paid towards Response Consulting flyers- you know, those glossy mailers you throw away.
$33,871 – Paid to GR Seppala & Associates for “Fundraising” (not going so well either)
$16,287 – Paid to Integrated Communication Strategies, Inc for “Fundraising” (Again, not doing such a good job)
$70,500 – To the NRCC for “Contributions”. That’s right- the biggest lump of his cash isn’t even being used for his campaign.
$49,823 – Platinum Business Card (For “Service Charges”…? I’m glad I don’t have that card…)
$10,101 – The Capitol Hill Club in Washington, DC. Including one night worth $4,843. That’s a LOT of beer.
$2,132 – Congressional Institute “Retreat” (AKA Vacation)

Oh, but it gets dirtier.

- Remember “The Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree”, that came forward in late 2007 claiming McHenry was a wonderful candidate? He spent nearly $5,000 there in November.

- McHenry spent $702 at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC. The 9:30 Club is a venue that “presents top-name rock, punk, hip-hop and country acts nightly.” Sounds political, doesn’t it?

- McHenry has spent $4,843 on a meal. That’s right- and because it’s not listed as an “event expense”, that means it was basically unrelated to the actual campaign. That’s one hell of a meal.

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Of course, McHenry claims that he’s making a “personal investment”. In what, specifically, other than concert tickets and $4,843 meal charges?

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