Last Wednesday, while searching for an idea for today's column, I ran across a letter to the Daily Republic editor by a guy named Al. He seemed unduly upset about all the so-called White House "scandals" and wrote about the apparent lack of accountability within the Obama Administration.
Al wrote: "What do you want to bet that nothing will happen to this den
of thieves and liars, when all is said and done?" Well Al, Congressional investigations into President
Obama's "scandals" are being conducted by House Oversight Committee Chairman, Republican
Darrell Issa. He is the Santa Claus enticing
you with his brightly-colored packages and, if you find them empty, you should
seek accountability from him.
For many
months now, Darrell Issa and Fox News have been repeating over and over and
over again, ad nauseam, that Hillary Clinton had been involved in a cover-up of
the Benghazi attack and that President Obama was involved in the I.R.S. "targeting"
Tea Party groups, delaying their unnecessary applications for non-political,
tax-exempt status. It's easy to see how
people could have been led astray by this continual and ever-lasting hype. Perhaps the root of the problem lies with
Representative Issa's unusual, backwards approach to these situations: First he
states his conclusions, that the Obama Administration is guilty of some heinous
crime, and then later, looks for evidence.
While his proof is always and forever imminent, Issa, nonetheless,
incessantly flaunts his conclusions.
Representative Issa's sensational, incriminating allegations are
magnificent grist for the right-wing media mill and a boundless delight for
Foxophiles, but so far, he has failed to deliver any substance. With the giddy anticipation of children on Christmas
Eve, Obama-haters stare expectantly at Issa's shiny packages, only to awaken to
the sad reality of coal.
Representative
Issa's glitter-coated Solyndra investigation never exposed any wrong-doing, but
we learned that it was actually the Bush Administration that selected the
Solyndra proposal from 143 submissions, and moved it forward.
Despite
all of Issa's damning declarations, his long-running "Fast and Furious" probe never
did nail Attorney General Eric Holder, but a real investigation found fault
with the plan's architects, a few state and lower-level federal officials.
With his
Benghazi inquiry, Issa has been unable to substantiate his claims that either
the White House or Hillary Clinton were involved in any "cover-up" or
"stand-down" and, in fact, Ambassador Stephens had himself, twice, declined
additional security immediately prior to last September's attack.
Now, Representative
Issa is saying that President Obama had instructed the I.R.S. to attack the Tea
Party. To support his preposterous proposition,
he leaked cherry-picked bits of out-of-context transcripts from closed-door hearings. When the full transcripts were released last
week by the ranking Democrat, Issa's assertions were shown to be lies. The I.R.S. employee responsible for lumping
the Tea Party requests together was a low-level Cincinnati worker trying to
ensure that all these groups were treated equally and this plan was approved by
his supervisor, a self-proclaimed "conservative Republican."
Yes, Al,
there is a Santa Claus and every child who still believes Darrell Issa or Fox
News will be forever showered with their golden gifts. While it's obvious that Representative Issa's
absurd theatrical hearings, flagrantly false accusations, wasted congressional
time, expense, and media showboating are nothing more than partisan politics
gone wild, I totally agree with his contention that it is a highly serious
crime against our republic for any government official to misuse the trust of his
office to intentionally harm an opposing political party. That said, the House Oversight Committee's
next investigation should open with the words: "Mr. Issa, what did you know and
when did you know it?"
