There is a very real problem facing reporters in the 112th Congress. There are 89 new members. Many of them look the same. Apart from the members I met on the campaign trail, like Wisconsin’s Sean Duffy and Virginia’s Scott Rigell, the few recognizable members are notable for facial hair (the superb mustache of West Virginia’s David McKinley) or size (former Eagles offensive tackle Jon Runyan, who is 6’7”).
The Democrats are easier to spot. Another reporter and I ran into one on the way to a vote, and asked how he liked being in the minority. “So far,” he said, “it sucks.”
Back to my point. No one is easier to spot than Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), who is not thin, who has a gap in his front teeth, and whose coiled hairdo can be seen from many yards away. He’s the grandson of failed 1972 Democratic vice presidential candidate Sissy Farenthold, and his election was mired in recounts, so by luck he has one of the best offices on the Hill, because it was reserved for the veteran congressman he beat in case he actually won. “We call it the trillion dollar office,” he says, “because we have a clear view of the Capitol.”
I talked to Farenthold briefly about the first actions of this Congress. He put his name down to read a section of the Constitution tomorrow, he said, and he would vote to repeal health care reform. “Repeal of the health care bill will help the economy,” he said. “We’ve got to start getting rid of the red tape.” How will it improve the economy if, as expected, it dies in the Senate? “If that happens we have to find some ways to roll back that red tape anyway. The amount of bureaucracy you have to go through to basically stick a shovel in the sand – it’s unbelievable.”
The war on red tape will not stop with health care. Texas’s air quality control program, he said, is being warned by the EPA that it’s not doing enough, that it’s ripe for the EPA to step in. “We’re looking at ways to stop that,” he said. “That’s the whole Republican agenda – making things more business friendly.”
(Photo: BlakeFarenthold.com.)
