# "If you wish to leave you may" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 11, 2019, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369 "2019-04-11T00:05:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/1 "2019-04-11T00:05:45Z")
Better than late night. [Maxine Waters bangs down her gravel on Mnuchin](https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-47888113/steven-mnuchin-v-maxine-waters-treasury-secretary-clashes-with-congresswoman). ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/2 "2019-04-11T02:46:36Z")
“Fine! I won’t leave!” “Cool. Continuing on …” ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/3 "2019-04-11T03:21:29Z")
I thought they were gonna get in slap fight for a minute. That was crazy. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/4 "2019-04-11T14:23:10Z")
Steve “Gravel” Mnuchin is a shining example of how stupid the R party has become. What a maroon! ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/5 "2019-04-11T14:39:30Z")
Paraphrased because I don’t feel like watching it again while paying enough attention to actually transcribe: “I’ve got an important meeting to attend.” More important than testifying in front of a House Committee? That meeting better be with someone from the President on up. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/6 "2019-04-11T14:43:27Z")
Yeahbut, folks on the other side are going to high-five saying that Mnuchin “owned” Waters. For them, it’s all about the fighting. And Waters, in addition to being a Dem, is an African-American female, which makes her a particularly juicy target of Trump, so Mnuchin gets an extra gold star from His Orangeness for that. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/7 "2019-04-11T14:49:28Z")
He may have movie connections and an interesting jawline, but Ms Waters has served in a public forum since 1991. She could appear in that chamber while still asleep and whip anyone’s ass in rules of order. I don’t know who he thinks he is, but it’s been made clear who he is NOT. He’s lucky she didn’t simply reclaim her time off him. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/8 "2019-04-11T15:53:09Z")
Mnuchin thought he could play the “I’m a very important person”-card in a sarcastic way and Waters just smacked him down with the “Say what you mean and mean what you say - child” approach. Mnuchin looks like an arrogant fool to me in this exchange, but of course “arrogant fool” is the ideal leader to anyone following Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/9 "2019-04-11T16:17:18Z")
I don’t know what preceded that interaction but both Mnuchin and Waters come off as being petty and overly dramatic. In Water’s case, I assume it is frustration out of evasiveness and obstructionism by Mnuchin but I wouldn’t regard this as being a high water mark for either of them. Mnuchin doesn’t ever come off as being all that bright or self-aware, but nobody beats Betsy DeVos for her “deer in the headlights” degree of utter cluelessness and being lost in the wilderness of her own ignorance, [to the point of making it difficult to actually parody her](https://youtu.be/pLNaGOvtI0Y) [in a way that isn’t more sympathetic than the real thing](https://youtu.be/3l4NYspZLsU). Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/10 "2019-04-11T17:37:43Z")
Can’t you be held in contempt of Congress or something? She shoulda thrown the book at him. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/11 "2019-04-11T18:11:15Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > I don’t know what preceded that interaction but both Mnuchin and Waters come off as being petty and overly dramatic. In Water’s case, I assume it is frustration out of evasiveness and obstructionism by Mnuchin but I wouldn’t regard this as being a high water mark for either of them. I think his “I have a very important meeting elsewhere” was pretty disrespectful. And as one of the late-night shows pointed out, when he talked about how much time he had spent in front of the committee versus previous Treasury Secretaries, he had that information already in hand. Why would he do so? ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/12 "2019-04-11T18:44:03Z")
Ha, he thought he was dealing with Kamala Harris. He was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![vertizontal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ad7895/32.png) [@vertizontal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vertizontal)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/13 "2019-04-11T18:51:47Z")
> [@](#): > > “If you wish to leave you may” I don’t get it – why didn’t he just say “Thank you” and then leave? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/14 "2019-04-11T18:53:41Z")
> [@vertizontal](#): > > I don’t get it – why didn’t he just say “Thank you” and then leave? I think he thought that would give them a chance to resume later and make him come back. He wanted the hearing “concluded.” ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/15 "2019-04-11T19:30:45Z")
Yeah, he kept calling for everyone ELSE to be dismissed if he left and Waters was having none of that. He was basically trying to top from the bottom and it didn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/16 "2019-04-11T19:35:48Z")
Remind me again… for how many hours did Hillary Clinton endure questioning by a committee? Eleven, wasn’t it? Mnuchin is a tool among tools. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/17 "2019-04-11T19:38:19Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I think he thought that would give them a chance to resume later and make him come back. Serious question; is there a limit to the number of times the House can ask a member of the cabinet to sit for questioning? What I heard from Mnuchin seemed to suggest that he thought he was done for the year. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/18 "2019-04-11T20:51:51Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Can’t you be held in contempt of Congress or something? She shoulda thrown the book at him. Lock him up! ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/19 "2019-04-11T22:27:37Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Lock him up! No, I really wanted her to pick up one of those big ol’ law books and bean him.🙂 ( I made myself laugh) ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-wish-to-leave-you-may/832369/20 "2019-04-12T02:47:30Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > No, I really wanted her to pick up one of those big ol’ law books and bean him.🙂 > > ( I made myself laugh) Right? I would have donated all my heaviest books to the cause so she could have thrown and thrown and thrown.