Republicans in Congress are planning to investigate the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, looking for evidence of corruption and wrongdoing.
ItĂ ‚¬ „ s absurd, of course: a tiny commission with a small budget didnĂ ‚¬ „ t offer much scope for corruption. But what this is really about is intimidation Ă ‚¬" in much the same way that investigations of climate scientists are about intimidation. What the GOP wants is to make people afraid even to do research that produces conclusions they donĂ ‚¬ „ t like. And they donĂ ‚¬ „ t stop at trying to undermine the research Ă ‚¬" they go after the researchers personally. The goal is to create an environment in which analysts and academics are afraid to look into things like financial-industry malfeasance or climate change, for fear that some subcommittee will either dig up or invent dirt about their private lives. McCarthy had nothing on these guys. |