On this date in 2017, as well as 2018, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” had its first profile of the U.S. House Representative from Texas’ 11th Congressional District, Mike Conaway, a former accountant and longtime toady of the Bush family who first won office way back in the 2004 elections, who honestly has done his damnedest to not be noticed while the rest of the Texas House Congressional Caucus do all the stupid things. But as mostly anonymous as Conaway has been compared to some of his compatriots, of late he’s drawing a lot of attention, due to the fact that after California Congressman Devin Nunes went and f***ed up meddling in the Trump/Russia investigation by running to the White House to warn them about how the FBI had picked up their conversations with Russian agents during the 2016 elections… while they were monitoring the Russian agents. That’s obviously as partisan of an act as you’re going to see from someone overseeing an investigation, to warn the person being investigated that they were, in fact, the subject of an investigation, and what evidence has been gathered against them. The GOP had to abruptly find someone else to take over trying to quash the inquiries into whether or not the Trump campaign was doing all the treason and colluding with a foreign power to get their help in winning the presidency in the 2016 election, and picked Rep. Conaway to be the guy, although for Nunes’ supposed “recusal”, he’s still been repeatedly caught with his thumb on the scales a handful of times.
Anyway, yeah, Rep. Conaway’s dozen years of anonymity went out the window, because he was overseeing the House’s Trump/Russia investigation until Democrats took back control of the House. Conaway expressed doubt in hearings with James Comey and NSA Director Mike Rogers as to whether or not Russia even interfered in the 2016 election (meanwhile all the U.S. intelligence agencies agree, they totally did). Instead, Rep. Conaway would rather spend time scoring points in hearings that should be serving as a way to preserve the integrity of American elections from a foreign power by instead, talking about the rivalry between the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Texas Longhorns (Look, we love college football as much as the next guy, but F***ING PRIORITIES, MIKE. JESUS.) and declare the whole fact that a presidential candidate colluded with a foreign power to sway an election in his favor a case of “move along, nothing to see here”.
It would be a shame if there were some sort of evidence within Mike Conaway’s voting record to indicate that he’s fine with elections being stacked in the favor of the Republican Party, regardless of the cost… OH WAIT, THERE IS. Back in 2006, when the Voting Rights Act was up for renewal in the House, Mike Conaway was one of 33 members of the GOP who shamed themselves by voting against it (and seriously, the short list of names features several former CSGOPOTD like Roscoe Bartlett, Steve King, Virginia Foxx, Dana Rohrabacher, and Trent Franks).
Even though the perception is that Conaway is somehow the most trustworthy member of the Republican House they could have placed to oversee the House’s version of the Trump/Russia investigation, we’re still talking about a guy who’s posed for photos in a “MAGA” hat who as late as January of 2017 was comparing the hacking done by Russian hackers during the 2017 election as much of a severe and unprecedented manipulation upon the outcome to the fact that Hillary Clinton hired a Mariachi band to appear at one of her campaign events:
“Harry Reid and the Democrats brought in Mexican soap opera stars, singers and entertainers who had immense influence in those communities into Las Vegas, to entertain, get out the vote and so forth. Those are foreign actors, foreign people, influencing the vote in Nevada. You don’t hear the Democrats screaming and saying one word about that.”
And that is some “bothsidesdoit” bulls***.
And we’re also talking about a guy who has blocked inquiries into finding out how much all of Donald Trump’s weekly trips down to Mar-A-Lago on Air Force One, to stay at his own resort and charge the Secret Service for room nights there actually are costing taxpayers. His actual defense into blocking the inquiry was hardly inspiring:
“This is the House Armed Services Committee. We don’t oversee the federal bureau of ethics.”
So he can acknowledge there’s a reason for there to be some sort of ethical violation there, but THAT’S NOT THIS COMMITTEE’S JOB, SO SHOVE OFF. Although, maybe Rep. Conaway’s lack of concern about ethics might explain why he and his wife have chosen to ignore the rules set in place by the Stock Act, and started purchasing shares in health insurance companies while knowing they would profit from those shares even more if the GOP successfully repeal the Affordable Care Act. Which yes, has led to investigations into him possibly committing insider trading.
Outside of Conaway trying to half-ass the Trump/Russia inquiry and pretend he’s fully engaged, well, there’s a long, long voting record for us to dive into, featuring the fact that co-sponsored and voted for a resolution towards creating a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage back in 2006, has on several occasions votes for bans on abortion at 20 weeks twice voted to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, votes against equal pay for women and minimum wage increases, votes against any and all legislation that would increase LGBTQ rights including ENDA and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, the fact that he voted against the DREAM Act, voted against the Zadroga Bill, to provide healthcare for first responders from 9/11, and in 2011, even voted against raising the Debt Ceiling limit, which if not lifted, economists warned could have led to the collapse of not just the American economy, but the global economy. Mike Conaway voted against Disaster Relief Funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy, but last year was more than content to vote for Hurricane Harvey disaster relief, but only because he isn’t stupid enough to turn down funding to his own district.
In this session of Congress, Mike Conaway has continued to be a partisan ***hole, not just by calling for the resignation of new House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff for actually doing ANYTHING in the same role that Conaway ahd, but was content to sit on his thumbs, but also in terms of his voting record:
- January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Conaway voted against HR 648, because he was gleeully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
- February 28th, 2019: Mike Conaway votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
- March 7th, 2019: Conaway votes against HR 183, a resolution to condemn anti-Semitism as a hateful extension of intolerance.
- March 14th, 2019: Rep. Conaway votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
- April 4th, 2019: Mike Conaway is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
- June 4th, 2019: Conaway votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
Unless he gets a serious primary challenger in 2020, don’t expect Mike Conaway to be going anywhere unless he chooses to go himself. After all, Texas’ 11th Congressional District only has a +32 Republican lean, only the second most conservative partisan lean for any Congressional District in the Cook Partisan Voting Index. It’s part of why the Republicans wanted Conaway in charge of the Trump/Russia investigation, when you think about it… no matter how much partisan interference he provides… there’s a statistically a slim chance that district flips blue.
One Year Ago, July 12th, 2018: Mike Conaway (TX)… 2018 Update
Two Years Ago, July 12th, 2017: Mike Conaway (TX)… Original Profile
Three Years Ago, July 12th, 2016: Rick Green (TX)
Four Years Ago, July 12th, 2015: Kristia Cavere (NY)
Five Years Ago, July 12th, 2014: Richard Mourdock (IN)