Henry Brown is generally not on my radar screen because he’s in a district where we have few readers. (I tend to follow the doings of Clyburn, Wilson and to some extent Spratt.) I still tend to think of him as the rather unimpressive Ways and Means chairman that S.C. House Speaker David Wilkins used to bring to editorial board meetings, years and years ago.
So while I have heard bits and pieces of the saga over the burn on his property and the fine, I haven’t formed a clear opinion of it, beyond the fact that it sounds cheesy and petty as all get-out. I mean, how hard is it to keep your nose clean on something like this? A running, personal dispute with a federal agency when you’re a member of Congress? Who wouldn’t have just paid the fine, long ago, in order to put this behind him?
Today’s story reinforced that impression:
A senior federal official, fearful of incurring a congressman’s wrath, sent subordinates on a mad dash earlier this year to retrieve a certified letter demanding payment of $5,773 for starting a fire that burned 20 acres of a national forest.
Mark Rey, undersecretary of agriculture for natural resources, said he didn’t want U.S. Rep. Henry Brown to receive the March 12 letter before he testified before a U.S. House committee on which the South Carolina Republican sits.
If you have other thoughts, or if you agree, or whatever, here’s your chance to sound off.
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Evidently — given that there are no comments a day later — y’all don’t pay much nevermind to Henry and his doings either. Maybe he’s protected by an SEP field.
Whad’ya mean, no comments posted? I guess mine must have gotten lost in the ether. So, here goes again.
Someone told me that Republicans in the First Congesssional District didn’t want a congressman, and they got what they wanted in Henry Brown.
I don’t get the state, or I would have commented.
I have met the man, and quite frankly, I can’t imagine how he ever graduated high school let alone become my congressman.
He is the most unintelligent man I have ever met, and I met George W Bush! My son, who has Asbergers, has the man beat.
The only thing Henry Brown knows how to do is take money for corporations, and stick it to his constituents in CD 1.
Guess what Henry, we are finally getting rid of you.