Get Energy Smart! NOW!

Representative Patrick McHenry made a name for himself in 2007 as seriously Energy Dumb in his truthiness attack on the Energy Bill as focused on bicycles as the solution path. Amid the $billions of spending (and tax benefits) under consideration, the insightful McHenry focused on $1 million per year in spending on bicycles as somehow representing “the” Democratic solution path to America’s energy challenges.  While McHenry did use a true fact (yes, there was $1 million in funding), his commentary was neither truthful nor speaking truth, since it tried to represent this extremely small portion of the bill as central and somehow quite significant. (If he had used more accurate words like “less than 1/100 of 1 percent of funding”, would his demogogy perhaps been undermined?)

Well, Energy Dumb McHenry showed his idiocy in the past month with his words and actions in Iraq. And, sadly, the idiocy goes well past questions of energy.

When an alert US soldier guarding the facility refused McHenry entrance to a Green Zone gym, what was McHenry’s reaction? Did this patriotic Republican, who so respects the military, praise the soldier for being alert and doing his duty?  Not exactly … In McHenry’s own words,

We spent the night in the Green Zone, in the poolhouse of one of Saddam’s palaces. A little weird, I got to be honest with you. But I felt safe. And so in the morning, I got up early — not that I make this a great habit — but I went to the gym because I just couldn’t sleep and everything else. Well, sure enough, the guard wouldn’t let me in. Said I didn’t have the correct credentials.

It’s 5:00 in the morning. I haven’t had sleep. I was not very happy with this two-bit security guard. So you know, I said, “I want to see your supervisor.” Thirty minutes later, the supervisor wasn’t happy with me, they escort me back to my room. It happens. I guess I didn’t need to work out anyway.

“Two-bit security guard …” Yup, love them soldiers, don’t we Patrick? (By the way, might we wonder why patriotic 32-year old Patrick isn’t in uniform?)  That he was foolish enough to post this material suggests that McHenry isn’t simply Energy Dumb.

McHenry’s faux pas in Iraq went beyond insults into recklessness.  Last week, on his official website, McHenry posted a video that clearly violates operational security (OPSEC) considerations, putting into public information about where insurgent weapons struck inside the Green Zone.   While a stretch to connect the dots, it does bear mentioning that

Unfortunately, only two days after the bellicose, yet clueless, Congressman McHenry posted the video, more rockets rained down on the Green Zone–this time killing two U.S. soldiers and wounding 17 in the most damaging attack on U.S. forces in the Green Zone since last year.

In the past, McHenry has called for investigations of leaks about national security issues. “We have an obligation to ensure the offenders are held accountable.”   As someone else noted, “The irony is rich.” In this case, Patrick, we clearly know who the offender is.  Will you join your House colleagues in censoring him?