Rep. Curt Clawson (R-Fla.) addressed what he believed were two members of the Indian government at a House hearing on Thursday and assured them that, as a U.S. representative, he would support all efforts to facilitate a better relationship between America and “your country” and “your government.”
There was only one problem. The officials testifying before the House Asia and Pacific subcommittee weren’t Indian officials at all, but two senior members of the U.S. government.
Nisha Biswal and Arun Kumar are Indian-Americans who serve as assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs and assistant secretary and director general of the United States and Foreign Commercial Service, respectively.
Clawson, who succeeded former Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.), continued on by heaping praise upon India while addressing Biswal and Kumar, apparently unaware of his confusion.
“I’m familiar with your country; I love your country,” the freshman congressman said. “Anything I can do to make the relationship with India better, I’m willing and enthusiastic about doing so.”
“Just as your capital is welcome here to produce good-paying jobs in the U.S., I’d like our capital to be welcome there,” he added. “I ask cooperation and commitment and priority from your government in so doing. Can I have that?”
How can we trust Congress to get anything done if this is the best they have to offer up? Do these folks even read their briefs? Do they know why they are there?
I understand that it’s an easy mistake to make if you are Joe Blow on the street. This dude is a member of Congress and really should have prepared himself and familiarized himself with the speakers and a little about each one. The fact that these folks are senior members of our own government just makes the good Congressman look like a horse’s ass.
A big thanks to Scout for this catch.
:
Its not just Florida.
Elijah Cummings doesn’t even know who is on the committees on which he’s serving.
Others think that Guam will flip over if we put too many troops on the island.
Eleanor Norton Holmes thinks that citizens don’t have the right to know what is going on inside government.
Sheila Jackson Lee ’nuff said.
Leland Yee….HUGE gun running gun control politician
Todd Akins.
There are MANY stupid politicians. This guy was just a case of mistaken identity.
Odd,Todd Akins is the only white male on your dumb ass list. In fact, I think me might be the only white.
Akins and the Florida guy.
At least he was nice!
Good point. He could have been nasty acting like Issa.
@Moon-howler
Akins is the only white guy because he’s the only Republican I could think of .
Its not my fault that Cumming, Lee, and Holmes are idiotic. And happen to be African American.
And Yee’s hypocrisy is so astounding that he had to be added in.
You couldn’t find any white people you thought were idiots?
hmmmmmmmm There have to be more than just poor old Todd Akin. How about Anthony Weiner? Darryl Issa? Just thought I would help you out there.
@Moon-howler
Here ya go….another Republican.
David Duke. Of course, he got 15% of the African American vote when he ran. And no GOP member would work with him.
That better?
Joe Biden would probaby have thought he was in a 7-11 in Wilmington.
I understand there is a school in the 57th state where they teach basic Austrian for tourists going to Vienna.
Yeh, that Clawson is a real dummy. Makes you wonder how he managed to get through Harvard Business School and become a chief exec of Hayes-Lemmerz, the largest maker of aluminum and steel wheels for automobiles and commercial vehicles in the world. The H-L company was sold in 2011 to Iochpe-Maxion LLC of Brazil for $725 million.
I know all sorts of people who are book smart with the social skills of a goat and who can’t find their ass with both hands.
Bet Clawson is smarter than Obama. Better basketball player too. Clawson was a Big Ten basketball star at Purdue. Not long ago, he challenged POTUS to a game of one-on-one; but POTUS wisely never took the challenge.
Ted Kaczynski and E.W. Jackson “managed to get through Harvard” too. How do you know Clawson is smarter than Obama? Did you go to Harvard?
I would have to put Joe Biden on that list for many reasons…. but mostly for this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq-eeWow_WU
Just another Republican that thinks he knows more than anyone else and does not have to pay attention to what is going on around him. He sees someone different than him, and he automatically goes into defensive mode that they are foreigners. Here is a link to a longer version, where he talks about how he invested in India…..
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/07/25/curt_clawson_video_indians_at_congressional_hearing.html
Wow Pat, you must have really been hitting the gym hard. There is no telling just how heavy that broad brush you carry around weighs 🙂
I saw this the other day and though it was pretty funny, it’s from a fundraiser Michelle Obama was hosting in Chicago the other day:
She first said this… “there’s too much money in politics. There’s special interests that have too much influence”
And then followed it up with this… “We need you to write the biggest, fattest check that you can possibly write”
@Jackson
that doesn’t sound broad brush to me.
Now, as for all the defense over Harvard. I never said the man was stupid. I said he is a fool and a horse’s ass, perhaps. big difference.
@Moon-howler
Hi Moon, I was referring to “Just another Republican that…” which implies that ALL Republicans think x, y and z.
Any time you start off with “Just another (_____)” your using a pretty broad brush, but maybe that’s just me.
What he did was real fool-like. It is his job to be prepared. He wasn’t.
Interesting how the responses immediately fell into playground shirts and skins. The issue isn’t whether this goofball from Florida is an R or a D. The issue is that he is a Member of Congress. How does someone that clueless get elected? This wasn’t just a case of “mistaken identity.” He is on the committee of jurisdiction and had before him US officials, presumably immensely knowledgeable on their areas of expertise and who took time to prepare for the hearing (I’ve been prepared for such testimony and have prepared others. It’s always an investment of time). He just assumed by looking at them that they were representatives of a South Asian country and went beyond that to assume which one. (How can you tell by looking at someone whether they are from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, or a half dozen other places populated by similar ethnic groups? Even names aren’t particularly revealing in all cases).
Even if the witnesses were from India, the comments from the Congressman were borderline insulting (not intentionally, he was being courteous, but the content was hollow, condescending and presumptuous).
Guys like this get elected because we settle for people who tickle our dispositions with buzzwords and platitudes. An incident like this, regardless of his party affiliation, shows how low we will go to go in choosing people who should be providing informed governance.
@Jackson Bills
Jackson – yes, a very broad brush – but over time it seems to fit the bill. You can see the uproar over YFT and UAC’s – the reaction is overblown. People are seen and instantly classified as X if they do not look like us. Just look at the reaction from the Birthers – they claim Obama was born in Kenya and should not be President, yet Cruz who actually WAS born in Canada is ok with them – how does one justify the uproar over the President and the acceptance of Cruz?? Cause he looks like us.
@Pat.Herve
You do know that the ‘birther movement’ started out of the Hillary Clinton campaign, right?
NOt believing that. Hillary isn’t a crazed redneck.
@Jackson Bills
umm, no, it was started by Andy Martin way before Hillary had a campaign. And are you a Cruz supporter? Is he eligible?
Yep, your right about that Pat… Looked up good ole Democrat Andy Martin and he did start the birther movement way back in 2004. He was even the first person to sue the state of Hawaii for Obama’s birth certificate along with being the source of the rumors that Obama was secretly a Muslim and that Frank Marshall Davis was his real father. Damn those Democrats!!!
However, you seem to forget or don’t want to admit the fact that Hillary Clinton supporters revived that notion in 2008 thus becoming the leaders of the modern birther movement. They sent out email stating…
“Barack Obama’s mother was living in Kenya with his Arab-African father late in her pregnancy. She was not allowed to travel by plane then, so Barack Obama was born there and his mother then took him to Hawaii to register his birth,”.
So, your right, Clinton didn’t technically start the birther movement. Her supporters started it up again in 2008 when they saw her slipping in the polls (just after Obama’s camp called Bill Clinton was a racist).
Funny. I was a Hillary supporter and never got one of those emails. Neither did my husband.
@Jackson Bills
and Karl Rove let out the rumor that John McCains adopted daughter was his illegitimate child. Sleazy politics. Was it Hillary herself – I do not know.
Do you feel that Cruz is eligible??
Your right, as Pat pointed out and I verified… Democrat Andy Martin start it in 2004. Hilary Clintons supporters just rehashed it in 2008 when they saw her slipping in the polls. I stand corrected, 1k apologies to Pat.
@Pat.Herve
Is Ted Cruz eligible? Eh, that’s a sticky wicket Pat. However, it’s one that I don’t think anyone will ever have to worry about all that much to be honest.
Your right, just her supporters are crazed rednecks 🙂
Some of them probably were.
The best part of this story is how he tried to get out of it by claiming he was simply posing questions. That’s the problem.
Perhaps you do. But not in this case. But I believe Rep Clawson identifies himself as a conservative, not a liberal. BTW, I bet Clawson even knows how to pronounce “hospital corpsman.”
Did Scout the Conservative Hater sucker the blogmeister by not advising about Clawson’s background? Shame on him.
Clawson is probably much smarter than Scout too.
How do I know Clawson is smarter than Obama? Ha! That’s easy enough. Just take a look at the national mess around you at home and abroad. I believe CNN did a recent poll in which the respondents, if they could have a do-over of 2012, sad they would go for Mitt Romney in a big way. Lots of opinion out there now that POTUS has, in effect, become so flustered and out of his depth that he is taking his golf clubs and basketball and going on permanent vacation.
@Scout
Scout, you do know, don’t you, that Clawson won a special House election in Florida with over 66% of the vote over his Dem opponent after winning a hotly contested primary to get to that point? The election was on 25 June 2014. Clawson has been in the House about a month or less and ought to be allowed a rookie mistake or two while he gets his sea legs. Or did you even bother to research him before feeding the raw bait to Moonhowlings?
I guess you nailed it.
He’s over 18, Wolve. I hold him to a standard of adult behavior and minimal situational awareness. I don’t see this error as having anything to do with his being a new member of Congress other than that the clumsiness is out where we all can see it.
@Wolve
Holding Cummings to the same standard by liberals (crickets)
@Scout
So..then Elijah Cummings abject ignorance of who is on his own committee should bother you too.
But…..I don’t see any complaints about that error.
Those people weren’t on his committee. They were providing information. Why must we compare this congressman to anyone? Why must you have to pull out a counter-dumb-ass? A counter- dumb-ass isn’t going to make this clown look a bit more with it.
So what if a ranking member doesn’t have all the committee members memorized. Bfd
Nonsense, Scout. The guy has been in the House less than a month. You should know damn well how much it takes to get up to speed on how that body operates, both as to the formal rules and the nonstructured flow of political power and action, not to mention trying to self-inform oneself on the substance and past history of the subjects being addressed by one’s appointed committees. Since this guy came to Washington because of a special election, he did not even have the benefit of the group introductory “sessions” give to freshmen members before the beginning of a new Congress. He has to pick it all up on the run while having who knows how many “old timers” twisting his arm to make sure he follows their lead on issues and any internal infighting going on.
I call bullshit on your “over 18” crap. I also call bullshit on this thread. “What a fool! Is this the best Florida can do?” This against a guy one didn’t know and knew nothing about because one didn’t bother to check his background or even to discover that he was about as rookie as you can get in terms of starting a term in Congress? The guy is crapped upon because he made an embarrassing rookie mistake? Bet the farm we wouldn’t have seen any of this from either you or the author of the thread if the guy had a “D-Florida” after his name.
Why do I need to check someone’s background to decide that he has insulted public servants of the United States? He made baseless assumptions that could have easily been checked. It has nothing to do with being a “rookie”. He could have prepared for the hearing.
I hold conservatives to high standards, Wolve, because I am one. I don’t like being embarrassed by people who claim to be something that I have always considered to be the intellectual anchor of the American Republic. When I saw this, I had no idea whether this guy thought he was a “conservative”, “liberal”, or something in between. It was both hilarious and appalling and illustrative of the low standards that we have of Congress.
Nonetheless, I am not embarrassed by Maxine Waters, or Charlie Rangel (sp?), or that guy Wexler from Florida, because I have no affinity for the portion of the political spectrum that they identify with. But I do find it disturbing to have people who claim to be from my neck of the woods falling into these kind of holes in front of a large audience.
Waters, Rangel, and Wexler don’t embarrass me either. Why should they? I am a moderate independent except about reproductive rights. *I* think I am a moderate there also but I doubt that others would.
We really shouldn’t expect to have to do a full bio on someone caught being a dumb ass. All the more to do your job in the first place if you are new to the job.
Oh, stop the spin, Scout. You tried to kneecap a rookie who made a rookie mistake. And you suckered the blog into going with it. Shame on ya.
I posted it, not Scout. He just sent it to me, laughing.
Rookies are meant for knee capping. Perhaps he will find out who he is listening to in the future. Didn’t he even hear what they were saying? He is being paid big bugs for not many days work. I expect them all to listen.
I think he did it to himself, Wolve. I had no part of his preparation for the hearing (or lack of preparation). I get the “rookie” concept in the NFL. I don’t think it has much application in positions of trust in the federal government.
I think the issue here is the fact that he assumed, because of the way they looked, they were foreign. I actually went back and watched it, thinking maybe they were foreign born and became citizens and perhaps had accents which mislead him. NOT. If there were two Caucasians sitting in front of him he never would have made that mistake. That is the problem.
It is not an R or D issue, but to generalize, the Democratic party is more ethnically diverse.
Back in the late 90’s I had the privilege of going to the State of the Union Address as the guest of Congressman and Mrs. Bill Young (R-FLA) I sat in the balcony where all guests sit and there was stark contrast. From where I was sitting, the left side of the seating was all gray suits, mainly on older white men. The right hand side was an array of colors of people, wearing a variety of colors. It reminded me of the circus vs a funeral.
Then I was absolutely awe-struck by the incredible amount of power all under one roof. It truly was an experience of a lifetime.
I will add that the way our leadership is dominated by white males is a detriment to our country. The House of Representatives and the Senate and many corporations do not reflect the actual demographics of our society. I personally think it is disgusting but I think it will change in a generation. Embracing US born ethic diversity, attracting talent to the US and offering educational opportunities to all that are here, born or immigrated, will ultimately be our strength in the long term. I believe we will end up on the right side of history, (in spite of FOX News.)
Kneecapping rookies?
Okay…how about a non-rookie. And when I saw the headline, I correctly predicted who this idiot was.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/katherinemiller/we-never-tried-to-impeach-bush-says-democratic-lawmaker-who
@Watching
Why do you equate quality with skin color or gender? Why is having white males a detriment? If the demographics were magically changed so that any other race/gender/whatever was dominant….can we expect you to condemn that also?
Sheila Jackson Lee is a wonderful example of how easy it is for people who perennially make fools of themselves to stay in Congress, Cargo. It is one of the few remaining bi-partisan truisms. It also shows, as you indicate, that you don’t have to be a “rookie” to bring derision down on the People’s House. I’m fast getting to the point where I would favor a one-term limit for all Members of the House. At least, in that way, some of the members might spend two years trying to govern, without worrying about raising money for the next election and having to play to the lowest elements of the electorate. We’d lose experience and judgement(?) but I’m not sure there’s enough of those qualities around so’s that we’d really notice the loss.