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When Harry Met Lynn …

Jenkins, far right, is a member of the GOP leadership. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)
Jenkins, far right, is a member of the GOP leadership. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

If you don’t know who Rep. Lynn Jenkins is, you have something in common with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.  

In an interview on Tuesday with Fusion’s Jorge Ramos, Reid was asked how he would respond to Jenkins’ charge from last summer that the Senate was the real “do-nothing” chamber because Reid blocked GOP legislation when he was majority leader.  

His response? “I say respectfully to this woman, I don’t know who she is,” Reid replied. “But she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”  

He went on:

Every Congress — it doesn’t matter what Congress it is — the House, it’s so easy to pass things, and [Republicans] … [in] the last four years … they pass tons of stuff and send it over, all the time knowing that we’re not gonna take most of that stuff up. If it’s something that’s good for the country, we’ll take it up, we’re happy to do that … When Nancy Pelosi ran the House, she passed stuff, we didn’t take it up … [House] rules are different than ours.”

Ramos opted not to clarify to Reid who Jenkins is. In any case, HOH lashed together a few raw facts about the woman not in Reid’s life.

  • Jenkins is a Republican from Kansas.
  • She is in her second term as vice-chairwoman of the House Republican Conference.
  • In that capacity, she is the fifth-ranking House Republican and second-ranking House GOP woman.
  • She was elected in 2008.
  • Before that, she was Kansas state treasurer and was in the state House and Senate.
  • She is a certified public accountant.
  • She often utilizes a box to stand on to reach a microphone.
  • Like Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Jenkins also knows how to castrate a pig.

Jenkins’ office didn’t comment on Reid’s interview, but her official Twitter feed did throw a few jabs.  

“Sums up @SenatorReid’s inability to even attempt to pass 400+ bipartisan House bills as Majority Ldr, respectfully,” she tweeted.  

She followed up later: “.@SenatorReid, not everyone from Kansas is named Charles or David… #respectfully.”  

If you don’t know who Charles and David are, those would be the Koch brothers, native sons of the Sunflower State to whom Reid surely needs no introduction.

The 114th: CQ Roll Call’s Guide to the New Congress


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