Guy’s legislative skills fail to impress
Voter alert: our district’s Republican congressman, Guy Reschenthaler, recently crossed the aisle to support legislation championed by the speaker of the House, Democrat Nancy Pelosi!
Reschenthaler, a regular on Republican cable news outlets where he lays waste to the radical socialist agenda of the Democrat Party, threw in with the San Francisco liberal in February on a bill awarding Congressional Gold Medals to police officers who “protected” the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection.
To make matters worse, the queen of confrontation, California congresswoman Maxine Waters, had a hand in the legislation which Reschenthaler helped to pass. The bill cleared the House after Waters, who stands accused by conservative critics of all kinds of nefarious actions, moved to suspend the rules – suspend the rules! mind you – in order to pass the bill unamended.
This wasn’t the first or last time Reschenthaler sided with Democrats. It seems the 38-year-old lawyer and former South Hills magisterial judge who is serving his second term in the “People’s House” makes a habit of hanging with the libs.
In July 2019, he teamed up with the Manhattan Democrat, Carolyn Maloney, as a co-sponsor of legislation to aid victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. (The legislation was popular, apparently, attracting a total of 332 co-sponsors.)
Earlier in 2019, he signed onto a House bill introduced by a Wisconsin Democrat. Just the other day, Reschenthaler co-introduced legislation with Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester of President Biden’s home state Delaware.
(Incidentally, Rochester once lived in China.)
Reschenthaler has even offered support to Conor Lamb, the suburban Pittsburgh Democrat who pretends to be a moderate and is acolyte of Pelosi’s, even though he’s never cast a vote to make her speaker (trying to fool us again).
Maybe Reschenthaler talks a better conservative game than he plays. Maybe what we have here is a R-I-N-O, a Republican In Name Only. Maybe what we have here is a liberal masquerading as a Republican true-believer and a Donald Trump-clone to get himself elected.
His legislation with Rochester sounds especially suspect. A news release puts it this way: “The bipartisan and bicameral Clean Slate Act will give more than 70 million Americans with low-level and nonviolent criminal records a second chance to fully participate in society.”
A companion Senate bill is being co-sponsored by Bob Casey, the liberal lion from Scranton. (Well, Casey is second in line for that dubious honor to Joe Biden, the original Scranton liberal.)
Maybe there’s not much to worry about. The vast majority of the legislation Reschenthaler has either sponsored or co-sponsored has gone nowhere. As a legislator, Reschenthaler is pretty much a flop.
It’s freakish the number of times the congressman’s legislative initiatives have come to nothing. Too liberal? That could be one explanation.
Here’s the count: during the 116th Congress and in the current 117th Congress, Reschenthaler has attached his name to 476 bills or resolutions, as either the chief sponsor or as co-sponsor.
Twelve of the 476 have become law.
In baseball terms, Guy is hitting .025
Sure, there are some real successes. The Greg LeMond congressional gold medal, for instance. That was a home run. Guy also helped to push across the plate two bills renaming post offices, including one initiated by Rep. Lamb. Those were MVP moves.
But wait, there’s more.
Twenty-one times Reschenthaler has gone to bat alone. (Translated, he has been the chief sponsor or instigator of 21 pieces of legislation.)
He currently sits at 1 for 21. Batting average: .047. Even that comes with a caveat, Congress.gov noting that provisions of Reschenthaler’s H.R. 2384 “were incorporated into other bills which were enacted.”
That hurts.
Based on the record, you’d have to say Guy Reschenthaler is better – far better – at cable news shows and tweeting than he is at legislating.
As disappointed as conservatives may be by Guy’s legislative record in Washington, and his occasional – I admit it – flirtation with Dems, they still have this: along with 146 of his Republican House colleagues, Reschenthaler stood with President Trump against handing over the presidency to Joe Biden on Jan. 6.
And I bet he’ll vote to toss Liz Cheney from her party leadership perch this coming week (although we’ll probably never know, since the House Republican caucus vote will likely remain secret.)
One thing we know for sure about our man in Washington: Guy Lorin Reschenthaler loves Donald Trump. And even if his legislating stinks, isn’t that enough?
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. His latest book, “JFK Rising,” is available on Amazon. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.