August 9, 2006
More and more, it looks like Patrick McHenry is just NOT the man who should be representing the 10th District in the US Congress. Because of his questionable ethics and meddling in local elections,we've had to "look the other way" for almost two years.
Now, we have to hold our noses, too. The latest chapter in the McHenry demise is his not-so-secret request to both of North Carolina's US senators, Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr, NOT to attend or participate in the fund-raising dinner August 19 to help Catawba County Sheriff David Huffman retire some $250,000 in previous campaign debt. It's a petty attempt to "put Huffman in his place," which is an oft-quoted McHenry line.
Huffman was the good congressman's primary opponent in 2004, and McHenry apparently still harbors a hateful grudge, especially now that Catawba County primary voters have rejected his surrogate, Mike Ledford, in favor of the incumbent sheriff. McHenry's personal vendetta against Huffman has just gone too far, and frankly, I have a hard time with the notion that a freshman congressman from Cherryville can influence not one, but two, US senators in such a negative way.
I expect politics around here to be played with more class, not McHenry's junior high, one-up-manship style.
Dole and Burr aside, I saw McHenry use ethically questionable campaign tactics against Huffman two years ago, taking tiny bits of truth and twisting them into monstrous distortions to gain a last-minute advantage. I really don't doubt now that his primary election, had it been challenged in the legal system,would have been invalidated due to campaign shenanigans that have since come to light in at least two counties.
The national College Republicans went to the mat for McHenry many times in 2004, especially by providing overwhelming campaign manpower, and he "repaid" them by trying to dictate to them who their national officers should be. Now, they hate him, if "hate" is a strong enough word. Why?
Rumors continue to swirl about McHenry trading votes for campaign contributions, his shady political "deals" with past and present North Carolina representatives, his staff taking active roles in at least two local campaigns in Catawba County, and even his personal life, and he won't publicly address them. In the taxpayer-funded pep rallies he calls "town meetings," he's rude and dodges direct questions about
real issues.
For me, the last straw was McHenry's petty interference with two US senators in what should be a well-deserved testimonial dinner in honor of Sheriff Huffman's 28 years of public service.
I honestly don't believe the voters of the 10th District intended to send this arrogant young man to Washington, DC, just to rake in campaign cash, to hob-nob with the rich and famous, to interfere in local politics in obvious attempted power grabs and to insult our public officials back home with his personal snubs extended through others in Congress.
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