The Post's Mike Allen wrote a piece, "Panel Chairman Leaves Hearing, " about Sensenbrenner's meltdown during the Patriot Act hearing today. Allen noted that Sensenbrenner "showed his pique." That's an understatement. He had a hissy fit.
Also included in the piece were the remarks of James Zogby:
One of the witnesses then began giving impromptu testimony. James J. Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, said he thought the turn of events was "totally inappropriate -- no mike on, and no record being kept."Yeah, the House GOP can really teach the world about an open society. They should throw in a course on ethics taught by Tom DeLay, too.
"But I think as we are lecturing foreign governments about the conduct of their behavior with regard to opposition," Zogby said, "I'm really troubled about what kind of message this is going to teach to other countries in the world about how they ought to conduct an open society that allows for an opposition with rights."
The Post noted that Sensenbrenner is "the heir to a paper fortune." It's a little more interesting than that. Sensenbrenner's family money comes from Kotex per Legal Times:
His family fortune derived from his great-grandfather, Frank J. Sensenbrenner, who invented the Kotex feminine hygiene product shortly after World War I, then used the money from that venture to become Kimberly Clark's largest single shareholder and eventually its CEO.Word on the Hill is that if you really want to piss off Sensenbrenner, call him "Tex." So, henceforth on Americablog, he is "Tex."
