On this day in both 2014, and in 2015, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” posted its first two profiles of Trey Gowdy, the U.S. House Representative from South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, a would-be witchfinder general who obsessively looks for conspiracies being carried out by Democrats that never actually manifest, and complains about the media when they have the nerve to report when he’s unable to find any wrongdoing. Gowdy was placed in charge of the Benghazi Select Committee in 2014, which given current events revealed thanks to Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, looks even more partisan and ridiculous than it did the first time we profiled Rep. Gowdy. In addition to the Benghazi Committee/fiasco/waste of taxpayer money that Gowdy has been making himself famous for, he also tried hyping the IRS scandal, calling for Lois Lerner to be held in contempt of Congress for invoking her 5th amendment right to not testify against herself. It was the first time that Congress held someone in contempt for doing that since… wait for it… Joe McCarthy during the Red Scare hearings. Gowdy also expressed his desire to use torture not just against terrorists… but against IRS employees to root out all the crimes they committed, “like Jack Bauer on 24”, and tried hyping outrage about the closing of the World War II Memorial during the 2013 shutdown by claiming that special consideration was given to Occupy Wall Street protestors to stay in that park (Zuccotti Park was privately owned, not by the government). During the House Oversight Committee’s witch hunt against Planned Parenthood, Gowdy grilled the organization’s president, Cecile Richards, repeatedly interrupting and badgering her while attributing quotes she had made which she never had said. Rounding out Gowdy’s resume is one of the most conservative voting records in Congress, and an hard policy in favor of Voter ID laws that disproportionately curb the ability of minorities to get registered to vote, which he feels “can’t be racist” by his logic because sometimes, people in South Carolina elect minorities.
Gowdy’s Benghazi committee finally ended not with the repeatedly promised bang, but a whimper. Before it was all over, he had to concede that all of the reports that concluded nothing could have been done to save the lives of the four Americans killed there could have been saved by any possible intervention, and he and the Republicans on that committee had to begrudgingly release the report to the press that concluded there was no culpability or wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton or the State Department.
And so, you may now associate Trey Gowdy with partisan failure. Also, his decidedly extremely conservative voting record:
- November 19th, 2015: Gowdy votes for the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, reacting to the terror attacks in Paris by jihadists from France and Belgium by trying to create greater restrictions to keep out Syrian refugees, of whom exactly zero were involved in those attacks.
- February 2nd, 2016: Trey Gowdy votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than was predicted).
- May 19th, 2016: Rep. Gowdy votes against House Amendment 1079, which would have prohibited the use of federal funds for discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. So if you were wondering, yes, he’s pro-discrimination, apparently.
- September 28th, 2016: Months after funding was requested to prevent Zika Virus, and after several cases have begun to be diagnosed in the United States, Trey Gowdy still votes against HR 5325, which would provide funding towards preventing its spread. (Remember, this is from a dedicated Pro-Lifer obsessed with defunding Planned Parenthood.)
Gowdy was unchallenged in the GOP Primary for his seat to represent South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House, and that district has a +15 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index. His opponent is Democrat Chris Fedalai, a 26 year old Greenville attorney who is hard not to root for, given his dedication to wanting to do more for veterans (which will get over in South Carolina), who attended law school at the University of South Carolina, and is highly vocal about the issue of police reform. Likable as Fedalai might be, as bad as the Benghazi Select Committee blew up in Gowdy’s face, and even with the candidacy of Donald Trump dragging down the chances of many Republican members of the House, a +15 lean might be too big a hill for Fedalai to climb. (We’re pulling for him anyway.)