Red Alert Politics:
Prediction? Pain.
In the company of smirking colleagues 100 percent aware that he was about to inflict viral pain, Rep. Trey Gowdy laid waste to Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber’s history of “stupid” comments at a House committee hearing Tuesday.
Gowdy asked Gruber about his comments on Obamacare and American voters one-by-one, asking the highly paid figure behind the law to explain what he meant in each instance. Consistently, Gruber responded by condemning his own remarks: “inappropriate,” “inexcusable,” “hurtful,” “glib,” “inexcusable arrogance,” and “overstatement” were the words and terms he used to describe his statements in retrospect.
“The pervasiveness of your quotes is so much that it has to be … more than just an episodic mistake that you made,” Gowdy said at one point, in-between his recitation of Gruber’s many “uninformed and glib comments.” It got to the point at which the South Carolina rep stopped himself to ask the obvious.
“Do you see a trend developing here, Professor Gruber?”
“I don’t understand the question,” Gruber responded.
“It’s a lot of stupid quotes you’ve made, that’s the trend. You see them?”
The grilling didn’t stop there. Gowdy got Gruber to remark on his ego, a bare moment of such discomfort that it’s almost advisable to hide your eyes and cover your ears.
“What is a non-politician doing talking about political advantages?” Gowdy asked of one of Gruber’s particular remarks.
“A non-politician is talking about political advantages to try to make himself seem smarter by conjecturing about something he doesn’t really know about.”
“So you’re a professor at MIT and you’re worried about not looking smart enough?”
“Yes,” Gruber admitted uncomfortably.
“OK. Well, you succeeded, if that was your goal.”
