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Brown-nosing his way through Congress
Congressman on another big junket

WASHINGTON, D.C., Aug. 6, 2001 -- Over the last seven months, U.S. Rep. Henry Brown has been on a joyride on a Navy submarine, a junket to China and, now, a junket to Alaska. Later this month, he's jetting his way to Africa on yet another congressional trip.

"This fellow is using the U.S. Congress as his ticket to travel the world," one critic said. "Isn't it nice the taxpayers can pay for his fun?"

Brown also unabashedly seeks power, according to an Aug. 6 story in The Post and Courier.

"What he wants -- what he really, really wants -- is powerful buddies and, eventually, some clout to call his own," the newspaper reported.

He told a reporter, "If you want to get things done, you have to get close to the people who make the decisions." Then he hopped on a plane for a 10-day taxpayer-funded trip to Alaska - - a trip to give congressmen a chance to look at possible sites for oil drilling.

Brown is already considered in Washington to be a lock-step Republican vote, which, among other things, provides him with chances to have lucrative fund-raisers, the paper said.

"In addition to successful networking, Brown has compiled a near-perfect voting record (he missed one of 210 votes because of a technical malfunction), piled up nearly $170,000 for his first re-election bid in 2002, and added his name as co-sponsor to more than 50 bills," the paper reported.

"I'm always trying to network," he said.

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"Why we sort of deserted nuclear power I don't understand."

-- Henry Brown, after he took a March 2001 joyride on the USS Springfield, a nuclear submarine.

• Click here for other pearls of wisdom from Henry Brown