Disgraced former Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas still has friends to catch him when he falls.
One month after resigning from Congress to avoid an ethics investigation into sexual harassment allegations, the disgraced Texas Republican landed a new $160,000 gig with the local government. He will work as a legislative liaison for the Port of Port Lavaca-Point Comfort.
Two years ago, before he was sunk by scandal, Farenthold worked with the local port authority to secure federal dollars to dredge the adjoining channels. According to the Victoria Advocate, the congressman worked with the Calhoun Port Authority to get the project “100 percent paid funded by the federal government,” and port director Charles Hausmann couldn’t have been happier.
“The contract came in at $2.14 million,” Hausmann said at the time, “so it saved the citizens of Calhoun County a lot.”
More projects and more federal dollars are on the horizon. “They’ve got some issues with the federal government that they need to get resolved with respect to design deficiency. There’s a variety of issues, I’ll just leave it at that,” Farenthold told listeners of local “Lago in the Morning” talk show on Monday.
The Calhoun Port Authority did not respond to comment requests from the Washington Examiner. The authority did, however, tell the Corpus Christi Caller Times that Farenthold’s knowledge of both the port and political power brokers played a role in the hiring process.
“Blake has always been a strong supporter of the Calhoun Port Authority and is familiar with the issues facing the Port,” the port authority said in a statement. “The Board looks forward to the services Blake can provide in assisting the Port with matters in Washington, D.C.”
A search of Farenthold’s social media shows two photos of him posing with his future colleagues in his congressional office. That familiarity and his pork record were apparently enough to convince the local government to ignore his disgraceful past.
Former Farenthold employees accuse their old boss of drinking excessively, flying into fits of rage, and making sexually explicit comments to women. Although he denies any wrongdoing, he used $84,000 in taxpayer funds to settle a sexual harassment complaint — money that he has promised but so far has failed to repay.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called for a June 30 special election to fill the seat Farenthold vacated. Now that he’s landed a new government job, he won’t have to worry about voter accountability ever again.
