Really, Trey? THAT’s the look you’re going with?

gowdy_surfs_up  download (3) 596-trey-gowdy-610 FILE - This file June 28, 2013 file photo shows House Oversight Committee member Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. House Speaker John Boehner on Friday declared he’d schedule a vote to create a select committee to investigate the Benghazi attack, escalating a political battle that has raged since the final days of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. A senior Republican aide said Boehner was considering Gowdy to chair the select committee. The aide wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity. It’s unclear when Boehner will schedule the vote.  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

I was out of pocket yesterday playing in a charity golf tournament (to benefit Healthy Learners) out at Fort Jackson, which means I probably had a better time than you did. (How did I do? Well, the official score was 70, which sounds great until you learn that it was captain’s choice — which, for the uninitiated, means that we had four tries at every shot — and that was the team score. When I left, the leading team had come in with a 56, and we were tied for last place. But it was a beautiful day, and we had a good time.)

But while I didn’t blog exactly, I did mini-blog and bit, and this was my most popular Tweet of the day, garnering a number of reTweets and favorites:

You may have noticed that South Carolina’s own Rep. Gowdy has made almost as many attempts to do different things with his hair as Eric Clapton, only with less success. I am not the only one to compare the above look to Oswald Cobblepot, a.k.a. The Penquin, on “Gotham:”

Others have mentioned Draco Malfoy, possibly after seeing this particular do.

You might be tempted to say that he’d look better if he just grew it out some, particularly on the sides. But then you would take that back upon seeing this. And let’s not even get started on this one

The most normal he has ever looked was when he went with the neoclassical Brutus cut, as they called it when it came into fashion in the early 19th century. Or perhaps we should call it the Cassius look, as in:

Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep a-nights.
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look.
He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.

Maybe that’s why he abandoned it. He didn’t want Kevin McCarthy talking about how “yond Trey hath dim’d the star of Hillary Macbeth…”

But when the big day came, what did he do? He whipped out the Butch Wax and went with the kewpie doll look:

Gowdy look

19 thoughts on “Really, Trey? THAT’s the look you’re going with?

  1. Brad Warthen Post author

    OK, I know, I know: I’ve opened myself up to charges of ignoring substance in order to obsess about superficial nonsense.

    I accept service on that. But just to show I can discuss the substance of the hearing as well…

    BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI! BENGHAZI!

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      Actually, you know, Gowdy is not a dumb guy. He’s quite self-aware. Which makes the hair thing interesting. He seems to carefully CULTIVATE a look that says he doesn’t care about his appearance. But he has so MANY different expressions of that, each requiring a different application of comb and/or brush and/or hair product, that you can see the deliberation in it…

      And as vain as politicians can be, all that experimentation sort of sets him apart — at least, among MALE politicians…

  2. Bryan Caskey

    What is the story on his tie in that first large photo? That’s awful. Seriously, it looks like he lost a bet or something.

    I’m deducting 10 points from Slytherin for Gowdy’s horrible tie.

  3. Barry

    As a Conservative, this hearing is a political stunt.

    One only has to listen to the conservative members asking Secretary Clinton questions to realize all they are looking for campaign fodder.

    As someone that was trained as an investigator, and served as one in a previous job, asking someone “gotcha” questions only to cut them off before they can get finished with even one complete sentence is clear evidence that it’s nothing but a stunt.

    BTW- I once again watched All The President’s Men last night on TCM. That movie always fascinates me.

    It’s also depressing believing that most of the “journalists” today at places like The Washington Post are in the tank for one political party or another.

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      Isn’t that movie awesome?

      I saw it again several years ago for the first time since it came out, and I had forgotten just how good it was. I knew I had liked it, but I would have guessed that was because I was so into the subject material. After all, all that was going on when I was in J-school, and Woodstein inspired my generation of journalists.

      But it’s just an awesome piece of filmmaking, regardless of the subject matter.

      One detail that distinguishes it: The awkwardness of the interviews. There’s nothing Hollywood about those disjointed conversations. The actors sound like real people, and the interviews come across with all the tension that you get between a reporter anxious for the story, and a source who absolutely does NOT want to be talking to a reporter.

      Real interviews are nothing like what people see on TV, with people essentially performing for the camera. They’re more awkward, less articulate, messier. And more polite. When people aren’t posturing for the camera, they’re more bound by social conventions. So you get terrified people trying to get a reporter to go away without being rude about it, and you have reporters trying to keep their feet in the doorway and keep the source talking, also without being rude about it, and it’s wonderfully human.

      Those scenes just crackle with realism…

        1. Barry

          Agree. The phone interviews with sources reveal the sources to be nervous (a fact that Woodward and Bernstein write down on their notepads) and their statements aren’t complete sentences in some cases, somewhat disjointed, and not very clear. That is what I would expect in real life.

  4. bud

    I for one hope the Republicans keep this up. It’s generally accepted conventional wisdom that this hearing is nothing but a political witch hunt so the longer they keep it up the worse they look. So whatever Trey Gowdy’s hair looks like I say GO TREY! Make yourself look more and more foolish. That only helps Hillary at this point.

  5. Bart

    Don’t bother posting much anymore because I cannot believe some of the antics underway by most Republicans and some Democrats. The election has already been decided and I believe Republicans are fully aware of the fact that they don’t stand a chance of winning the White House. Hillary will be the next president. If anything, Republicans stand to lose several seats in congress.

    I will still vote for the least objectionable candidate no matter which party. But, considering what we have in Washington, we are getting the government we asked for. Too bad the ringmaster has lost control of the circus.

  6. Mark Stewart

    That hearing was a classic example of when lawyers (especially prosecutors) do not make good politicians.

    They tried to keep it real even as they stood in quicksand instead of playing it as political theater. Which is what it was.

    Instead of grilling a master debater/responder for 11 hours they should have just started by agreeing that there was not much to the Benghazi confusion beyond the fog of war and agree with her on all of the steps to follow in the future, then quickly dismiss her – and conclude by saying the hearings did the nation an important service uncovering Hillary’s dismissive disregard for the peoples’ expectation for the transparency of executive governance. And stop there.

    That was the committee’s ace to play. Instead Gowdy played the Joker.

  7. Priscilla

    I love that Trey is confident enough of a man to try new styles with his hair. I personally think he’s hot hot hot, in any hair style! I also love how committed he is in his beliefs of morals, family, God and the United States. We need more like him! I love your hair Trey!!!

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