#Grubergate: House GOP eyes ‘Obamacare’ architect

(Bloomberg Politics) — Jonathan Gruber has had better weeks. For months, citizen journalist Rich Weinsteinhas beendigging up video of the MIT professor, who has never shied away from the description “Obamacare architect,” describing how the still-loathed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) bill was passed.

Weinstein’s latest find, a video of Gruber thanking the “stupidity of the American voter” for allowing the law to pass muster with the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), has gone viral and led to similar finds, the latest one capturing Gruber in celebration of the “basic exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter.”

Gruber has walked back the remarks, during an appearance on (naturally) MSNBC. Republicans have not stopped battering him. “He insulted the very people, frankly, who put the President in office twice,” said South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, the chairman of the select Benghazi committee, in a Fox News interview last night. (Fox News has run round-the-clock coverage of Gruber’s gaffe addiction.) In an interview with the Washington Post, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan raised the possibility of Gruber hearings.

Jordan said House Republicans have been sending each other a blizzard of e-mails and text messages this week, and he expects the interest in “bringing [Gruber] up here to talk” will gain traction as members return to Washington. House Republicans will gather Thursday evening for their first series of votes since the election.”I just had a colleague text me saying, ‘We’ve got to look into this!” Jordan said as he glanced at his phone outside the House floor Wednesday morning.

Jordan said House Republicans have been sending each other a blizzard of e-mails and text messages this week, and he expects the interest in “bringing [Gruber] up here to talk” will gain traction as members return to Washington. House Republicans will gather Thursday evening for their first series of votes since the election.