In advance of last night’s US Senate debate, where Rep. Katie Porter made Republican Steve Garvey look stupid (“Once a Dodger, always a Dodger”), the OC Register ran an op-ed from former Congressman Harley Rouda that realy rips Porter apart.
From the piece:
Porter boasts about taking on powerful special interests – using her whiteboard prop to scold executives – but after pledging to reject their campaign contributions, she “has accepted tens of thousands of dollars worth of contributions from powerful people with influence at the highest echelons of Wall Street.” Talk about hypocrisy. Her whiteboard everywoman act is a fake. She is, at heart, an accomplished actor who stages classless photo opps on the House floor.
But she doesn’t want you to see her that way. Instead, she’s the victim. Always.
…
Katie, because I know you will read this, let me say a few things to you directly: I never asked you to valet my car, I didn’t get rich from my time in Congress, and I didn’t purchase a, “DC penthouse for millions weeks after the election.” Those are all unadulterated lies and that makes you a liar. My wife, who you claim I flew “to Washington,” is an international best-selling author and can fly herself anywhere she wants. And she chose to join me in D.C., often, because we are a team. Trying to view our motives and our lives through your lens of isolationist outrage is unfair, and untrue. Projection doesn’t look good on anybody, but especially not someone who wants to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
As I read your book, one thing became very clear through all your lies. You say you want to be our next senator to provide, “a voice for the minivan drivers and parents who silently lament $20 field trip fees.” But that’s not your true desire. Like your own staffers have said, you’re in this for power and position, the ability to bully, and be in the spotlight. Your book revealed your true nature. Your minivan is a prop, and your life is of your choosing. As they say, you made your bed. But Californians still have a choice.
As we used to say in Texas, “Bitter, party of one” your table is ready.
I was not a huge Harley fan originally. But when he fired Victor Valledares from his campaign staff, citing the laters checkered past explaining: “We simply don’t need these kind of people (attention grabbing activists), they are TOXIC”, I took note.
Sounds like Katie has her future cut out for her as a contributor at the Orange Juice Blog!
Vern thinks Steve Garvey was a football player. Whatever troll taunts him about my work over there, sorry they don’t run your comments
Porter, known for her incisive and articulate take on financial shenanigans, must get under his skin, considering his own adventures with stock disclosures and the like. It’s like a cat burglar critiquing the neighborhood watch for being too vigilant! Porter, who’s been a thorn in the side of white-collar criminals with her trusty whiteboard, must have struck a nerve. It’s almost as if Rouda is saying, ‘How dare she be so competent at exposing financial crimes? Doesn’t she know I’ve made a career being on the other side of that equation?’
Harley’s op-ed feels like a desperate attempt to divert attention from his own shortcomings by attacking someone who’s actually been effective in her role. So, here’s to hoping Californians see through this and recognize that the last thing they need is more self-serving politicians. And Harley, maybe it’s time to focus on your own backyard before throwing stones at your neighbors.
Not sure why you found it necessary to repost this bitter man’s op ed. He lost his race and he thinks he was entitled to run in Katie’s district in 2020. What she said about stocks in Congress is true. They should be banned from trading and he became even more wealthy when in traded stocks in Congress.