Lawmaker sorry he mistook US officials as Indian

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Lawmaker sorry he mistook US officials as Indian

9:55 AM Tuesday Jul 29, 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) A freshman Republican lawmaker has apologized for mistaking two senior U.S. government officials as Indian when they testified at a congressional hearing.

Rep. Curt Clawson caused puzzlement at a hearing of a House subcommittee hearing Thursday on U.S.-India relations. He referred to the South Asian nation as "your country" when he addressed the State Department and Commerce Department officials, who are both ethnic Indian.

Clawson said in a statement Monday: "I made a mistake in speaking before being fully briefed and I apologize. I'm a quick study but in this case I shot an air ball."

Clawson, former chief executive of an aluminum wheel company, won a special election in April to represent a district in Florida. He is the newest member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.


Read more: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11300747

[mike_c]

1. got caught with his assumptions showing....

eom

[dsc]

2. He must have a horrible staff

and be an incompetent fool, a very, very bad combo for a member of Congress.

[CBGLuthier]

3. Brags about himself and blames his staff all in less than 30 words. Brilliant!

He should win politician of the year for this apology.

[LittleGirl]

4. John Oliver

probably pulled that apology too since he featured it last night. bwahaaaa

[elleng]

5. I'll BET he's sorry!

[truebluegreen]

11. Exactly what I was thinking.

Bet he wishes he could take back the smarmy smirk he had on when he demanded to know if "their" country would cooperate with "ours".

[tblue37]

22. And he ended his comment to them with, "Can *I* have that?" He

assumed (wrongly, of course) the people he was speaking to were representatives of the Indian government, and he spoke to them not as one person among a large number of people in our government, but rather as the one person to whom the Indian government had to respond in matters concerning the "free" movement of capital: "Can I have that?"

And, yes, that repulsive, smarmy smirk made me want to smack him silly.

But didn't you love the State Department guy's delighted grin? The woman was puzzled as all get out, but the man was on the verge of laughing out loud. On his show last night John Oliver highlighted that man's obvious amusement over the whole situation.

[truebluegreen]

29. I did love the reactions

and punctuating the actual circumstances with that overblown "I" was truly surreal....I hope there are creative people out there who can figure out how to use this in all future campaigns.

p.s. loves me that John Oliver

[DeSwiss]

6. ''I made a mistake in speaking before being fully briefed and I apologize.''

- For being an idiot? Nope, that's your parent's fault......

K&R!

They're still running this, right?

[Submariner]

7. Bozo should stick with making aluminum wheels

keep simple minds like that out of politics.

[Turbineguy]

8. And it's in the New Zealand Herald

So now the whole world knows what morons we elect to congress.

[VA_Jill]

10. Isn't that "morans"? n/t

[randys1]

26. Good, we are a badly broken country, we have people in positions of power

who are dumber than my 12 yr old grandson, not exaggerating.

We are in deep shit, people just dont get it yet, and the fact that ONE, let alone hundreds, of republicans will be elected in november, some of them will actually be elected without stealing the election, that fact means we are beyond broken.

Has everyone forgotten that in most states it is now near impossible to vote if you are old, student or minority?

So glad the world is learning how stupid half of this country is, remember this?


[link:|

[VA_Jill]

9. As we used to say in east TN

He's sorry, all right, but what's he apologizing for?

[zonkers]

14. Stealing that one.

[pinto]

12. ...newest member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Foreign Affairs. Ah geez.

[tblue37]

23. Like Michele Bachmann on the Intelligence Committee. Who says

[font size = "+2"]Republicans have no sense of humor?[/font]




[font size = "+2"]Wait--what? They were serious when they appointed those bozos?[/font]





[font size = "+2"]Holy s**t![/font]

[riverwalker]

13. his "Macaca" moment n/t

[Zambero]

15. I always wondered if it was possible to be more clueless than Sarah Palin

No longer wondering.

[Divernan]

16. It's not his staff's fault the fool can neither read nor listen!

I organized and attended hearings such as these as a staff member for about 10 years in a state legislature. Every committee member in attendance has, directly in front of him or her at the table, an agenda detailing a list of the names, titles, and organizations/agencies, numbered in order of appearance. In addition, each committee member is handed, at the time said witness comes up to their own seat/podium, a copy of the witness's prepared remarks, again with a cover page detailing the name, title and organization/agency they represent. And of course, each witness's remarks are prefaced by a welcome from the chairman, again clearly stating the witness's name, title, and affiliation.

It is de rigeur for all committee members to carefully check off, circle or underline the name of each witness on the agenda as they are introduced, precisely to correctly refer to said witness if the committee member chooses to address a question or comment to the witness. I have seen committee members pause to look down at this agenda to find the name of a witness they are addressing. I never, in 10 years, saw a committee member make such an error.

I found it interesting that neither the GOP committee chairman, nor this fool's fellow GOP committee members chose to correct him. Since he is a Tea Party member who defeated a 2 more traditional GOP politicians in his primary, I suspect they were enjoying the hell out of seeing him make such a public ass of himself.

On April 22, 2014, Clawson defeated State Senate Majority Leader Lizbeth Benacquisto and former State Representative Paige Kreegel with 38% of the vote to Benacquisto's 26% and Kreegel's 25%. Clawson was endorsed in the primary by the Tea Party Express.

[No Vested Interest]

17. That's two losers in very short order for the same Congressional district.

Rep. Trey Radel resigned earlier this year when he was caught buying cocaine in a drug sting.

The district represent Ft. Myers and Naples, FL - a rather affluent area of the state.
You'd think the voters - very Republican and retired - would be smarter than to elect these two.

[swilton]

20. False notions

that wealth = intelligence or compassion....The notion that the cream of the crop rise to the top is social Darwinism an ideology that reinforces wealth inequality and the justification of greed and the ends justifies the means....

[Divernan]

18. Here's another great freshman GOP House Member acts like an ass story.

Freshman Pennsylvnia GOP congresswoman, Melissa Hart, was on her way to session from her office in the Rayburn building. When the Congress is in session, certain elevators in the building have signs outside stating, for use of members of congress and staff only. So Melissa, along with the experienced staffer whose bad luck it was to be assigned to her, sweeps into the elevator, and here's how the New York Times described what happened:

Members of the House have their own elevators, too, but senators are fewer in number, are more recognizable and tend toward a tall aristocratic archetype. House members blend more seamlessly with the masses and are harder to recognize, which creates its own problems. (Congressional staff members related an incident in 2001, in which they recalled the freshman Representative Melissa Hart of Pennsylvania, who is white, admonishing Representative Julia Carson, who is black, that the elevator they were riding on was members-only. Ms. Carson, of Indiana, proceeded to introduce herself to her new colleague, offense taken.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/02/washington/02elevator.html?pagewanted=print=

The additional detail I heard on the PA political grapevine was that Melissa's staff person repeatedly tugged at Melissa's sleeve to get her attention to tell her this was another Congress person she was ordering off the elevator, but Melissa ignored her staffer.

[heaven05]

28. I remember that offense by ms. hart

I bet she wasn't even embarrassed after the introductions were made. I could turn this into a racial incident, typical of some who take their white privilege too seriously, but I'll spare the apologists here and just say hart was showing her stupid.

[Divernan]

30. I had occasion to work with her when she was in the PA Senate.

She was extremely unpopular within the Republican caucus because of her arrogance to everyone. They ridiculed her constantly. I was at a reception for Allegheny County elected officials and actually felt sorry for her because she was standing all by herself in the middle of the room and no one was talking to her. She had sponsored one piece of feminist type legislation re women and health care which I found very good. So I went up to her and said "Hello. I just wanted to tell you I really liked your Senate Bill (whatever the title was - I don't recall it all these years later). She started to smile, but as I continued by saying, "I'm Nancy ******, I'm a staff attorney for the Democratic House caucus", she glared at me as soon as I said the word Democratic, turned on her heel and stalked off without a word. And this was back in an pre-tea party, pre-born-again Christian GOP officials era when Ds and Rs were civil to each other in the state legislature.

Some years later I met an attorney who had been in her high school class. He told me the other kids really tormented her - that may explain her nasty disposition.

She keeps running and losing - last time was a primary for a state Senate seat. She lost to a cop with no college degree - obviously the state GOP has sent Hart the message, "You're dead to us."

[mac56]

19. Truly Bachmann-esque.

[alcibiades_mystery]

21. Airball? Try flagrant foul, you monumental asshole

"free capital has to be free"

Fuck you sideways, you piece of shit.

[3catwoman3]

24. More like a...

...giant cloud of mental flatulence. What a self-important jackass! And so arrogantly condescending and sure of himself.

Couldn't you just see the "WTF?" thought bubbles over the heads of the 2 panel members?

Quick study? Not so much.

[heaven05]

27. I blame the voters only

for advancing this idiot to the halls of power. He can't help that he is a stark raving dummy. The voters who voted him in, money and affluence aside, are the ones who didn't do their homework. Lazy and irresponsible is what the voters in this district are. Now let's talk about the not so affluent GOP crowd...............