Congressman Randolph Blake Farenthold is a pudgy little 55-year-old man whose surname commands more respect than its current holder, and that is how he came to waddle into Congress in 2011.
He won his first term by defeating a Democratic incumbent by 799 votes. His party obligingly gerrymandered him into a second-term win by 18 points, which he re-won with over 60% in 2014 and 2016.
Of his record, Wonkette wrote,
Texas Congresscritter Blake Farenthold is a real peach. He was elected to the House in 2010, flirted with birtherism,, explained that Ebola was probably going to kill us all because that’s how it works in zombie movies, and has frequently suggested that Congress could totally impeach Barack Obama for a million things (but good luck getting a conviction, because liberals still exist in the Senate).In 2014 a woman on his staff sued him for sexual harassment and retaliation; the case settled out of court a year later, which reminded people of some photos of him-in duck pajamas with girls in lingerie, from 2010:
The former aide was called Lauren Greene, as Wonkette recalled in its inimitable style:
Greene served as Farenthold’s new media director and later as communications director, and oh, and what a charming picture of Farenthold her complaint paints of the congressdouche. She says that Farenthold liked to share, like the time in February 2014 when he confided to her “that he was estranged from his wife and hadn’t had sex with her in years.” The complaint also notes that Farenthold “regularly drank to excess,” that at a staff meeting, Farenthold “disclosed that a female lobbyist had propositioned him for a ‘threesome,’ and that his Eye for The Ladies required staffers to run interference for him so that he wouldn’t get himself in trouble:
[Because] of his tendency to flirt, the staffers who accompanied him to Capitol Hill functions would joke that they had to be on ‘red head patrol’ to keep him out of trouble.
Oh, no, that’s not all. When Greene complained to Farenthold’s executive assistant, Emily Wilkes, that she was having difficulty doing her job because the congressman seemed to be avoiding her, Wilkes explained why the poor man was so standoffish: he was just consumed with lust, the poor thing, and had to shun working with his own social media director because otherwise he might not be able to control himself:
Wilkes informed Plaintiff that Farenthold had admitted to being attracted to Plaintiff and to having “sexual fantasies” and “wet dreams” about Plaintiff.
Farenthold knew that Wilkes and Plaintiff were friends and confidantes and that Wilkes would likely convey his comments to Plaintiff, which is exactly what happened on this and other occasions.
After Greene spoke with Wilkes in January 2014, Farenthold offered Greene the position of Communication Director, but Bob Haueter, then Farenthold’s acting chief of staff, told her she’d have to interview for the position and only grudgingly informed her that she actually had the job — there’s your retaliation piece.
Farenthold allegedly “regularly made comments designed to gauge whether [Greene] was interested in a sexual relationship,” including a couple of weird incidents that sound strangely familiar:
Farenthold told Greene that she had something on her skirt and that he hoped his comment wouldn’t be taken for sexual harassment. A reasonable person would infer that Farenthold was joking that she had semen on her skirt. On another occasion, Farenthold told Plaintiff that her skirt was partially unzipped at the top. Plaintiff went to the bathroom to zip her skirt, and she realized that the opening was so small that Farenthold would have had to be staring at her closely to notice.”
On the other hand, he didn’t ask her who left a pubic hair on his can of Diet Coke, so he’s probably OK on that one. Another time, Haueter sent Greene home from the office, complaining that her top was so sheer that he could see her nipples; Wilkes later told Green that Farenthold actually stood up for her on that occasion, kind of sort of:
“Farenthold told Wilkes that Plaintiff could show her nipples whenever she wanted to.” OK, maybe it was actually the little congressman that was standing up there.
... So, that’s just about as weird as it’s going to get, right? OK, maybe not all of it. Earlier this week, Roll Call discovered that back in 1999, Farenthold had registered a whole bunch of internet domain names, apparently for the purpose of speculation and possible resale, as one does. Among them was the intriguing “blow-me.org.” However, a spokesman clarified that it was all just business, nothing untoward...In October, 2016, The Dallas News reported,
Rep. Blake Farenthold of Corpus Christi told MSNBC journalist Chris Hayes that even the statement “I really like raping women” could in some cases be considered locker room talk. When Hayes asked if a recording of Trump confessing to rape would be enough for Farenthold to revoke his endorsement, Farenthold said he “would have to consider it.”So now Farenthold says he finds Republican women senators as disgusting as President Trump does all women except whoever he is married to, and Ivanka:
Think Progress reports (and has an audio link):
Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) is livid at the inability of the Senate to repeal Obamacare, and he knows exactly who to blame: the Republican women of the Senate.
During a radio interview on a Corpus Christi station last Friday, Farenthold said he finds it “absolutely repugnant” that “the Senate does not have the courage to do some of the things that every Republican in the Senate promised to do.”
Farenthold singled out female senators for opposing the repeal of Obamacare, before suggesting that if they were men, he’d ask them to settle things with a gunfight.
“Some of the people that are opposed to this [i.e., repealing Obamacare] — there are some female senators from the northeast,” Farenthold said. “If it was a guy from south Texas I might ask them to step outside and settle this Aaron Burr-style.”
It appears Farenthold was referring to Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). Collins is the only female Republican senator from the northeast, and last week, she announced she will vote against a motion to allow the Senate to debate repealing Obamacare unless a replacement bill is in place...Burr, of course, was America's third vice president, who, after killing former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in a duel, was tried for treason after shopping around a plot to break off the Lousiana Purchase lands, and Texas, as a Burrepublic.
Acquitted, he left the country, spent a number of years trying to launch a revolution in Mexico, and returned to America to practice law under an assumed name. He married a rich widow, frittered away her money, and died at 80, shortly after she divorced him.
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