Sunday, May 03, 2015

2010 Trey Gowdy opponent receives a JFK Profile in Courage Award

Super Bowl Sunday
Blizzard, 2015
In 2010, then federal prosecutor and Tea Party favorite Trey Gowdy defeated incumbent Republican US Rep. Bob Inglis in the race for the 4th Congressional District in South Carolina.

Each year the John F. Kennedy Library issues Profiles in Courage Awards, in honor of Ted Sorenson's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name that was attributed to JFK at the time.

From AP:
Former U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award on Sunday for reversing his position on climate change despite the predictable political fallout that helped cost the South Carolina Republican his seat in Congress.

Kennedy's grandson, Jack Schlossberg, presented the award to Inglis on Sunday at the JFK Library in Boston.

"My grandfather's legacy is kept alive by Bob's courageous decision to sacrifice his political career to demand action on the issue that will shape life on Earth for generations to come," said Schlossberg, son of Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg.
Well, uh, that's not entirely true. It's hard to believe that one issue, even man-caused global warming, could be responsible for Inglis' crushing defeat--71 percent to 29 percent--to Gowdy in a runoff election. What AP left out is that Inglis' views didn't match those of of his constituents in his deeply conservative district. He supported the 2008 TARP bailout, the DREAM Act, opposed the surge in Iraq, and he was one of only eight Republicans who voted to condemn his fellow South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson, the man who shouted "You lie!" during an ObamaCare speech by President Obama during a joint session of Congress.

Since leaving Congress, Inglis has been a critic of the Tea Party movement, and yes, a proponent of measures to combat climate change.

As for Gowdy, he's the chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, which will certain reveal damaging information on the front runner for the Democratic nomination for president, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

So is the honor for Inglis a backhanded slap at Gowdy?

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