One of the most enduring memories of the Cllnton Presidency, was Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, inviting reporters over to his backyard to watching him shoot up a pumpkin to prove that Hillary Clinton or one of her immediate subordinates murdered Vince Foster despite the official investigation ruling it a suicide.
That was the last time the House was in Republican hands under a Democratic President, until now. Burton came close to losing his chairmanship when his lead investigator and well known dirty trickster, David Bossie was fired for doctoring video evidence for Burton's committee in the Whitewater investigation.
It's going to be deja vu all over again in the 112th Congress. This time the face will be that of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) who heads the committee is a lot smarter than Burton and a tad less ideological. Issa has already laid out a roadmap of where their investigations will go and it's sadly predicatble.
While Issa may be slightly more palatable than the deranged Burton famous for saying, "If I could prove 10 percent of what I believe happened, he'd [Clinton] be gone. This guy's a scumbag. That's why I'm after him." He ended up proving 0% of his conspiracy theories but showed that "scumbag" is perfectly acceptable in the GOP lexicon of words to describe a Democratic president but not vice versa.
Issa got off to a rolling start this morning on CNN claiming that President Obama "has been one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times." He backtracked quickly on that statement but needless to say, with ODS (Obama Derangement Syndrome) proving to be far more pervasive and debilitating than CDS (Clinton) anything is possible, even for apparently sane Republicans.
Issa has already shown his mettle. He wanted the Committee he will now chair to investigate the SEC's fraud indictment of Goldman Sachs. He wasn't bothered by by GS's role in the financial meltdown, merely in the political motivation behind the timing of the charges.
He's itching to investigate Acorn, an organization that not only doesn't exist any longer, but was cleared of all charges emanating from heavily edited video transcripts of James O'Keefe's 'pimp and ho show'. He's also going to vigorously investigate the DOJ's handling of the New Black Panther's, which is basically a couple of tough looking black guys who have taking to hanging out at a polling station in Philadelphia.
What is certain is that subpoenas will be flowing once Congress convenes and Washington lawyers will be in heavy demand. We will long for the days when the Committee Issa will now head actually investigated things worth investigating like the disappearance of $8.8 billion in shrink wrapped $100 bills in Iraq and drug companies fraudulently conspiring to overcharge Medicare and Medicaid for millions. Sadly that was when the respected Henry Waxman, the long serving California Democrat chaired the committee.
There's certainly plenty of grist for the mill out there. Is Obama really conspiring to hand America back to the Indians, is he a Muslim, is he still 'palling around with terrorists and are bicycle paths in Denver realy a prelude to a 'one world government'. We'll never know, but not for lack of effort to find proof from a party intoxicated by one too many Tea Parties dosed with a healthy serving of paranoia.
the last time a GOP controlled House served under a
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