Sitting through congressional oversight hearings is like listening to Freddy Krueger drag his nails down a blackboard. I can remember when congressional oversight was just that: congressional oversight. The Left and Right asked probing questions, reports were written, and recommendations came about. Congress made it a law to put seatbelts in cars, not make American highways mimic the German autobahn, and allow people with disabilities to access sidewalks from the little dip mandated at the curb. If those things were proposed now, the first issue in a congressional hearing would be whether a Democratic or Republican president is in office. That has been demonstrated in real-time with the bipartisan comprehensive immigration bill languishing in the House of Representatives.
The bill's slow death is not because it would be ineffective or both sides did not get something they wanted but because it is a presidential election year, and the Republican nominee[Trump] wants it as an issue. The bill was negotiated by Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), James Lankford (R-OK), and Chris Murphy (D-CT). Hardly kale-eating, tree-huggers, with a former Democrat, a liberal Senator, and a conservative Senator, this group was straight out of an episode of The West Wing. Yesterday’s hearings—with Jim Jordan(D-OH)—chairing the hearing was the debacle one could expect. Of course, Jordan showed up in uniform, jacketless, tie-askew, and incessant harangue void of self-examination, shame, irony, or awareness.
At one point, Mr. Jordan launched into a lengthy diatribe about how Biden broke the law by reciting a litany of his alleged document crimes. Gesticulating and raising his tone, “So, Joe Biden knew the rules,”said Jordan, “You know he knew the rules,” he shouted at special counsel Robert Hur. “Joe Biden told us he knew the rules, so Mr. Hur, why did he break them?” Rep. Jordan wanted us to believe that after 50 years of service to his country, Joe Biden was willing to break the law, his oath, and morality for an 8-million-dollar book deal. Mr. Biden could make that amount on a one-year speaking tour as an ex-President. Of course, the hearing devolved into a series of pointless accusations, innuendo, and finger-pointing.
The inane question from Republicans got so bad at one point that Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-TX) suggested President Biden needed to be under guardianship as part of the effort to paint the President as mentally incompetent.“As I looked through those quotes, I harkened back to my time as a judge, and one of the things I oversaw was guardianships. And frankly, when I read your conclusions, red flags began going up in my mind because I oversaw hundreds of guardianships back in Texas,” Moran said.
I kept waiting for the questions about how we fix what has been revealed, which is becoming a routine habit of ex-executive branch members, taking home classified documents. Removing classified documents is a serious problem, but few, if any, questions even broached future fixes. Again, the seriousness of hoarding America’s vital secrets in a bathroom, garage, or ballroom stage is a problem. Donald Trump is under a 40-count indictment in Florida for lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice, to name a few. He is in the financial hole to the tune of a half billion dollars for tax fraud and defamation of his assault (rape) victim. Is that the man we want holding America’s secrets, and is there any question he would sell out his country to dig out?
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