THE NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN
Barry "Almighty" and his merry little band of Democrats are about to come in contact with a House Republican leadership that has some rather sweeping plans in mind regarding the initiating of some much needed congressional investigations into a very wide range of issues. Essentially Democrats have been permitted to go completely unchecked, feeling free to do pretty much whatever they felt like doing, the American people be damned. So now after facing very little oversight, if any, of their blatantly corrupt behavior, the Barry "Almighty" administration is about to find out that there is now a new sheriff in town. And his name is Rep. Darrell Issa, Republican from California. Rep. Issa will become chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in the 112th Congress. And what he plans on doing in the first three months of this year to lead no less that six major investigations into what has transpired over the course of the last 24 months. "I've always been fond of the saying that when it comes to oversight and reform, the federal government does two things well: nothing and overreact," Issa told reporters Monday. "Too often, a problem is allowed to fester until it reaches a crisis point, and the American people are left asking the question: What went wrong and why?" Up until now there has been no one who thought it important enough, or who were concerned enough, to go in search of answers to some very important questions. Mr. Issa has also asked business groups which regulations to target that Barry has so enthusiastically put into place in his effort to do nothing more than to further stifle economic growth. He has sent a letter to 150-plus trade associations, private companies, and think tanks just this week. “As a trade organization comprised of members that must comply with the regulatory state, I ask for your assistance in identifying existing and proposed regulations that have negatively impacted job growth in your members’ industry,” the letter read. “Additionally, suggestions on reforming identified regulations and the rulemaking process would be appreciated.”
Mr. Issa is sure to be making more than a few waves, if for no other reason than because he’ll have subpoena power to compel officials to appear before his committee. Among the items on his hit list are the “Wikileaks’ release of classified diplomatic cables, where among the administration officials he’ll be wanting to question is national security adviser Tom Donilon. Mr. Issa specifically wants to know whether the administration has a strategy to stop the dissemination of sensitive information on sites such as WikiLeaks. Also on his "To Do" List are the recalls at the Food and Drug Administration, the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the foreclosure crisis, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission’s failure to identify the origins of the meltdown and finally alleged corruption in Afghanistan.” So far, the White House has not engaged Issa, either preferring to wait and see what he does once he becomes chairman rather than react to what he says he will do, or to simply ignore him. Now I suppose that Barry can always insist on fighting anything he sees as a potential infringement on his office and he does have an arsenal to do so at his disposal. Barry can invoke executive privilege to prevent Mr. Issa, and others from questioning certain administration individuals, and he also has a team of White House lawyers and communications gurus standing at the ready, who will coordinate any response needed. Regarding the legal aspect of any requested testimony, White House counsel Bob Bauer will play a lead role in devising the strategy there, with lawyers Kathy Ruemmler and Kimberley Harris taking charge of any response. You can bet that Barry will be far from being anywhere near cooperative in any endeavor designed to get to the bottom of what's been going on for 2 years. Let's face it, with as much corruption that has taken place in 24 short months, there is much Barry would love to keep firmly under wraps and far from the prying eyes of the American public. The White House also could also tap the expertise of congressional liaison Phil Schiliro, who once served as the top aide on the oversight committee under the ugliest guy in Congress, Rep. Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who busied himself launching endless investigations into the Bush administration.
But Rep. Issa is far from alone in his quest to search out corruption and to start putting in place some measure of accountability. There are going to be “other incoming Republican committee chairmen are planning investigations into the Justice Department’s civil rights division, the radicalization of Muslims in the United States, homeland security grant money, and air cargo and port and chemical plant security.” The incoming chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Peter King, has said that he plans to investigate the extent to which American Muslims are cooperating with law enforcement authorities in an effort to measure the radicalization of the U.S. Muslim community. The New York Republican also plans to probe homeland security issues. "Different from Darrell Issa, I'm not expecting to find significant corruption in the departments," King told the Post. "To the extent there's disagreement, it will be philosophical disagreement and a question of leadership, whether or not the department is assertive enough." Then we have Rep. Lamar Smith, who will head of the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Smith is planning investigations of the Justice Department, including allegations that the civil rights division is not enforcing voter rights laws fairly. Since Democrats control the Senate, the White House, and federal agencies, Republicans can use House oversight hearings to slow down policies and practices they disapprove of. And at least at the present time every indication is that they plan to do just that. "The ability to hold hearings is a tool to help shape public opinion, put pressure on the Senate and maybe allow you at the end of the day to get concessions from the administration," said former Republican congressman Vin Weber, a Washington lobbyist. But, Weber added: "Speaker Boehner is quietly insisting that the investigative process be focused on substantive matters and not become a political witch hunt.”
The new ranking Democrat on Mr. Issa's committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), will take over from Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), Edolphus must be an old family name, who had been chairman and enjoyed a close rapport with Issa but was seen as a weaker adversary to him than the more hard-charging Cummings. In typical fashion, however, Towns said in an interview that "Issa is concerned about his legacy, believe it or not. And he'd like to be able to do some things that will make a difference and people years and years from now will say this happened under his chairmanship." Cummings though is more skeptical. He said Issa appears to have drawn conclusions about some issues even though his investigations have not yet begun. For instance, Issa has long said he believed federal regulations inhibit job creation, but plans to hold "fact-finding" hearings on the matter. Cummings has taken issue with Issa's calling Barry's administration "one of the most corrupt administrations in a television interview. "Corruption basically says people are criminals, and I think that's a pretty strong statement having not one scintilla of evidence, having not heard one hearing or had one testimony," Cummings said in an interview. "I think that if we have concerns, then what we should do is in a bipartisan way bring witnesses before our committee, depose them and hear what they have to say, and then draw conclusions." Sorry, but I'm siding with Mr. Issa on this one because sometimes you just got to call them like you see them. And let's be real here, who among us can look at specific members of this administration, including Barry, and not see anything other than a bunch of crooks and thugs? Here we have a team of individuals who are willing to resort to whatever tactics they view as being necessary if it will allow them to achieve their desired goal. The end always, always justify the means.
There are potential pitfalls for Mr. Issa as well as the other Republican chairmen seeking to investigate the goings on of the present administration. During the late 1990s, House Republicans pursued inquiries that many considered political fishing expeditions, such as investigating whether "BJ" Clinton's adviser Vince Foster was murdered despite his death being reported as a suicide. This and other Republican-led Clinton-era investigations bore no substantial results, and backfired on the party rather badly, politically speaking. With some polls still showing Barry being far more personally popular than congressional Republican leaders, with it at the same time being a real mystery regarding how this scumbag could be more popular than anybody, Democrats warn that the public has little appetite for political persecutions. But Democrats, too, have been accused of overreaching. Some Republicans considered it more than merely frivolous when the Waxman-led committee investigated the steroids scandal in professional baseball in 2008. Award-winning pitcher Roger Clemens testified under oath that he had never used performance-enhancing drugs. Two years later, he was indicted on charges of lying in his testimony. Under both parties' control, the oversight committee has at times held hearings with little follow-up. In 2007 and 2008, Waxman's high-profile investigation of veterans charities found that some of them were misusing money they had raised under the pretense of helping care for troops. And yet, Congress passed no laws to change the charities' practices. "The big thing Issa's got to be thinking about is if you become the dog that barks and no one listens, you become irrelevant very quickly," said Dean Zerbe, a former senior oversight aide to Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). "He needs to work with authorizing committees and leadership to tie in solutions with legislation or regulations.
Just to sum things up here, make no mistake, while I am very much in favor of holding politicians, whatever their political persuasion, accountable However, if they are not careful, Republicans do run the risk of creating a perception where they seem to be more concerned with revenge or reprisals than in bringing about some much needed oversight. So there is a very fine line here that has to be walked. There is not doubt that this administration needs to be held accountable, and that is something that has been sorely lacking over the course of the last two years. But having said that, Republicans need to careful not to shoot themselves in the foot. There has been a rapid expansion of government and massive amounts of money have been spent by the current administration with there being very little gained in return. They have, to a certain degree, been permitted to run somewhat amuck. There has to be some level of oversight present and up to this point there has been very little interest by the previous majority party to do so. Kurt Bardella, a spokesman for Mr. Issa, said the investigations will focus on the "institutionalized culture of waste, fraud and abuse" within the federal bureaucracy. "The enemy isn't the Democrats or the Republicans," Bardella said. "It's the bureaucracy that outlasts any one administration or political party." Still, such findings could have broad political reverberations for our buddy Barry as he prepares his 2012 reelection campaign. We can only hope!
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