It seems that all political opponents of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Deep Up Putin’s Ass) have to do these days is wait for the lube-lovun congressman to give an interview and then fire off the condemnation press releases.
Case in point: On Thursday, the San Francisco Chronicle published a piece titled “The Pro-Russia, Pro-Weed, Pro-Assange GOP Congressman Who Will Be Tough to Beat.”
Three guesses on who the subject of the story was and the first two don’t count.
In Joe Garofoli’s story, The Mouth That Rohrabachered bellows:
- The Russia allegations are “a total fabrication in order to do one thing: To prevent Donald Trump from exercising the legitimate authority he was given by the voters in the last election.”
- Democrats were behind last month’s white nationalist riots in Charlottesville, Va., and that even calling them white nationalist riots is liberal media “baloney.”
- A former Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders supporter got Civil War re-enactors to gather in Charlottesville under the guise of protecting a Robert E. Lee statue there. “It was left-wingers who were manipulating them in order to have this confrontation” that was aimed at putting “our president on the spot.”
Rohrabacher’s words were not exactly cheered by some of those who have announced they will run for his 48th congressional district seat in November 2018.
“Congressman Rohrabacher’s comments are dangerous,” said real estate investor Harley Rouda, who has raised $319,335 to win the Democratic Party nomination for the seat, according to the latest federal filing information.
“Now is no time to put partisan politics before country,” Rouda added. “The events in Charlottesville were horrifying, and the fact is that terrorists, neo-nazis and white supremacists have no place in our society. Period. Shame on Dana Rohrabacher for implying the death of Heather Heyer and the violence we all saw was a set up. His response today is nothIng short of deplorable.”
“I am angered and disturbed by the false claims made by Rep. Rohrabacher, but like many who live in his district–not surprised by them,” said Dr. Hans Keirstead, the Democrat stem cell researcher who raised $138,504 shortly after jumping into the 48th district race.
“With each new false claim, full-throated defense of Donald Trump, or Russian intelligence connection, the people of Orange County see who their congressman is truly fighting for–and it’s not them,” Keirstead added.
Several Democrats are trying to unseat Rohrabacher, seeing his seat as vulnerable because more voters in the 48th cast ballots for Hillary Clinton than they did for the Kneeboarding Congressman’s American idol Donald Trump.
That is why the 48th has drawn the attention of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which aims to switch “vulnerable” Republican seats like Rohrabacher’s over to Dems.
“It is deeply disturbing that Congressman Dana Rohrabacher struggles to identify white nationalists, particularly after their actions in Charlottesville resulted in the death of an American citizen–but perhaps that should come as no surprise, as he has made a regular habit of welcoming them into his home,” says DCCC spokesman Andrew Godinich in a statement reacting to the Chronicle interview.
“This is not what the voters of the 48th District sent him to Washington to do. These views are repugnant. They are un-American. It is 2017, not 1861–and any member of Congress that hesitates to condemn white supremacists has no business serving in the House of Representatives.”
Rohrabacher’s seat also drawn a Republican challenger: Orange County construction and general contracting company owner Stelian Onufrei.
Just this week, Onufrei chastised “out-of-touch Washington D.C. insiders”—who he identified as House Speaker Paul Ryan, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and “others in the Washington establishment”—with protecting incumbent Rohrabacher through the “multi-million-dollar political action committee” California Victory 2018.
“Rohrabacher’s ties to Russia have led to him being called ‘Putin’s favorite congressman,’” noted an Onufrei campaign email blast. “He has also been strongly in favor of easing strict marijuana laws.”
Before we here at the Weekly could raise a bong for cannabis decriminalizer Rohrabacher, Onufrei himself had something to say.
“It is outrageous that the House leadership would want to protect a congressman like Rohrabacher. He has done nothing to support our president, nothing to make our country safer and nothing for the residents of his district who are being asked once again to hold their noses and return him to office.”
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.