More on Rep. Patrick McHenry

11:46 AM EDT on August 13, 2007

Grist's Dave Roberts provides some more background on Rep. Patrick McHenry, the North Carolina Republican Congressman who ridiculed bicycling as a "19th century solution" during debate over the "Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2007." The House bill, which passed on Aug. 4, included a $20/month tax break for bike commuters:

That was him on TV claiming that Rep. Mark Foley's years of sexual advances on young Congressional pages was a Democratic plot. That was him who signed on to Tom DeLay's un-ethics bill, which would have exempted the Speaker from Congressional ethics rules ... and then went on TV to defend DeLay when the latter was busted taking vacations funded by lobbyists. That was him whose 2004 election field coordinator was indicted for voter fraud. That was him whose campaign manager and chief of staff racked up 21 convictions in court. That was him advocating a military strike on Iran. That was him comparing Congress to high school, complete with "the nice guys that everybody likes, the jocks, the geeks, the bullies."
Right. That guy. A special kind of dimwit. A pipsqueak Terminator of party hackery. The id of today's Republican party. The reductio ad absurdum of the Bush era. If the dude had any less gravitas he would float into orbit.
Probably not a guy you'd go to for advice on energy policy.

Aaron Naparstek

AARON NAPARSTEK is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparsteks journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. Naparstek is the author of "Honku: The Zen Antidote for Road Rage" (Villard, 2003), a book of humorous haiku poetry inspired by the endless motorist sociopathy observed from his apartment window. Prior to launching Streetsblog, Naparstek worked as an interactive media producer, pioneering some of the Web's first music web sites, online communities, live webcasts and social networking services. Naparstek is currently in Cambridge with his wife and two young sons where he is enjoying a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. He has a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Naparstek is a co-founder of the Park Slope Neighbors community group and the Grand Army Plaza Coalition. You can find more of his work here: http://www.naparstek.com.