Lawmaker apologizes for comment on Iraq guard

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news/2008/04/military_congressman_guardinsult_040408w

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Apr 4, 2008 15:49:44 EDT

A North Carolina congressman has apologized for calling a contract employee in Baghdad a “two-bit security guard.”

Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., used that term when talking about a visit to Iraq where he was denied access to a gymnasium. “It was a poor choice of words to describe a foreign contractor,” McHenry said in a statement.

McHenry was recorded at a local Republican fundraising dinner talking about his visit and being annoyed when he was denied gym privileges while staying in VIP quarters in the pool house of a palace once used by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. A copy of the video is available on YouTube.

While some reports have said McHenry was referring to a U.S. service member, McHenry and his staff said the person was a contractor providing security at the embassy.

On the tape, McHenry says he “went to the gym because I just couldn’t sleep” but the guard would not let him in because he did not have the correct credentials.

“It is 5 o’clock in the morning, I haven’t had sleep. I was not very happy with this two-bit security guard,” McHenry says, adding that he demanded to speak to the man’s supervisor.

“Thirty minutes later, the supervisor wasn’t happy with me,” he says, “It happens. I guess I didn’t need to work out anyway.”

A different tape is posted on McHenry’s official House of Representatives Web site. On that tape, McHenry talks about rocket attacks in Baghdad, and it appears there is smoke from explosions behind him in the sky.

McHenry says being denied gym access ended up working in his favor because he missed the rocket attack on the embassy.

McHenry is not a veteran, but in February he received the National Guard’s Charles Dick Medal of Merit, given to an elected official who has supported Guard members and issues.

Dick is a former Ohio National Guard major general who was president of the National Guard Association of the United States from 1902 to 1909. He also served as a congressman and senator, and was the driving force behind two major pieces of legislation that laid the foundations of the modern National Guard.

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