slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Kurt Bardella worked for Republicans on the House Oversight Committee back when the GOP cared about keeping the president in check.

Apr 29, 2019, by Kurt Bardella...Senior adviser for the House Oversight and Reform Committee from 2009 to 2013

President Donald Trump last Tuesday lamented on Twitter that “in the ‘old days’ if you were President and you had a good economy, you were basically immune from criticism.” The next day, he complained that Congress members “only want to continue the Witch Hunt, which I have already won.” In an interview with The Washington Post, Trump said, “There is no reason to go any further, and especially in Congress where it’s very partisan—obviously very partisan … I don’t want people testifying to a party, because that is what they’re doing if they do this.” Meanwhile, Trump has filed a lawsuit to avoid handing over his tax returns to the House.

Trump’s defiance of Congress is outrageous and dangerous. It also exposes Republicans’ hypocrisy. There is a world of difference between how Republicans viewed oversight when Barack Obama was president and their support of Trump’s obstruction. I know, because for five years I worked for Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

In a 1957 Supreme Court ruling, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote, “The power of Congress to conduct investigations is inherent in the legislative process. That power is broad … It comprehends probes into departments of the federal government to expose corruption, inefficiency, or waste.”

During my time on Oversight, the chief justice’s words were often cited as justification for our vigorous supervision of the Obama administration. Led by Representative Darrell Issa, my former boss, Republicans issued more than 100 subpoenas, held Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, created a select committee to investigate Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s handling of the B******i crisis, and filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging President Obama’s use of executive privilege.

In 2011, we sent a letter to Secretary Clinton that stated: “The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the principal oversight committee of the House of Representatives and may at ‘any time’ investigate ‘any matter’ as set forth in House Rule X.”

Also in 2011, when we suspected an effort to intimidate a witness called to testify at a hearing, Issa sent a letter warning the Obama administration that the “inappropriate effort to intimidate” and “discourage” someone from testifying before Congress was “an unlawful attempt to interfere with a Congressional inquiry.”

Yet when Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last week ignored a deadline to produce Trump’s tax returns, House Republicans refused to speak out against this blatant disregard for legislative authority.
And Republicans did nothing when the White House last week instructed an administration official to ignore a subpoena and not testify at a hearing regarding White House security-clearance procedures.

Contrast that with the time an IRS official refused to answer questions from Oversight Republicans—they held that official in contempt of Congress. During the contempt proceeding, Representative Jim Jordan, now the ranking Republican on the Oversight Committee, justified his v**e in favor of contempt by saying, “The only remedy we have to get to the t***h is to use every tool at our disposal” to get that official to “testify and answer the questions. That is the only remedy we have. The only route to the t***h is through the House of Representatives.”

President Trump and Republicans complain about the pace of oversight; Trump declared on Twitter on Wednesday that “there has NEVER been a President who has been more t***sparent.” But the simple t***h is that this White House is more obstructionist than the Obama White House, or any other White House, and Republicans are enabling this behavior.

During the two years that Trump’s presidency overlapped with the Republican majority in the House, Republicans issued a total of zero subpoenas to the Trump administration. To date, Trump has refused to cooperate with subpoenas issued by congressional Democrats.

Trump’s desire to shield his tax returns may provoke a constitutional standoff with Congress. He wants to slow the pace of oversight as much as possible, which means a long and tedious legal battle that will likely be decided by the Supreme Court. Trump is betting that the American people simply do not care whether or not he cooperates with congressional investigations. He’s betting that they do not have the attention span to follow a long court battle about constitutional authority. Trump believes that his stranglehold on the GOP is so tight that his f**grant disregard for checks and balances won’t matter to the Republican base or Republican elected officials. He might be right.

The entire point of having separate but equal branches of government was to create protections against the kind of tyranny and absolute rule that was common in Europe. If Trump can simply ignore Congress and act unilaterally without consequence, then he is America’s first dictator.

This fight is bigger than one hearing or one investigation or one subpoena. It is a struggle to preserve the foundation of our republic. Republicans won’t rise to the challenge. Which means it’s up to Democrats to keep Trump in check, and to support the Constitution. They have to learn to confront Trump as aggressively as we confronted Obama.

Liberty Tree

Democrats do not care about the Constitution, but only in getting Trump. There is a difference in a legitimate inquiry and in launching investigations in all direction in the hopes of finding something, anything yo get somebody.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

I'm done with it all. Over it. Both political parties are there for v**es, and are both dirty, and hypocritical.
I have a life to live, and it is meaningless to any of these clowns (being nice here).

People getting all worked up over this s**t is all they're after. I ain't doing it no more. I need to sharpen my lawnmower blade for the unlikely day that it'll ever dry up enough for me to use it.
I also have to go get a haircut, and horse feed, and possibly a new phone that'll work better for my work Saturday.

I have things to do other than read this bulls**t anymore.
It's all a show. A game. I'm not playing anymore.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Read it more carefully, L-T. Regardless of what you think of the dem's constitutional adherence, the writer points out his own republican party's hypocritical partisan allegiance for adhering to it or not.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Anyone with a lick of sense should probably join you, Arch. I'm considering it, myself.

BTW, I'm in the same situation as you with regard to mowing our lawn. Too much rain lately and still in the forecast for the next week or so.

Liberty Tree

How about Democrat's hypocrisy? They complain loudly when Obama and Hillary are investigated and then turn around and do worse. They were yelling impeachment before Trump even took office.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

You'll get no argument from me on that, except for being worse. Again, re-read the article.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

I'll be writing in my dog in 2020. He'll beat them all hands down.

Way I see it, it isn't this individual, or that individual who are destroying our country. It's democrats, and republicans, and the team sport that politics have become.

Meanwhile, I have to go to work, pay my bills, and deal with all of that life stuff that happens to us all.

I want the parties to go away, and the money that funds them. Let's v**e for people, not parties, and their donors.

Carol Kelly

Are you kidding me? Obama got away with attempted murder. The victim was to have been AMERICA.

Carol Kelly

To run for any political position beyond County Sherff you should a vast knowledge of the Constitution. The mess we are in is because ofthe Representatives and Senators who have no working knowledge of our Constitution. That is s fact, Jack

PeterS

Republicans were out to get Obama and they will do anything to protect Trump today. Myself, I am a bit disappointed in Democrats. They know Trump is going to defy their subpoena's so why aren't they prepared when he does? They should file a lawsuit as soon as Trump opens his mouth otherwise Trump will d**g this out until he is either v**ed from office or re-elected. No man has been more defiant of the rule of law as Donald Trump. So far he is proving that he is above the law and making the Democrats look like a bunch of i***ts.

PeterS

Actually, the mess we are in is because the DJT has no respect for the rule of law.

PeterS

How did he attempt to murder our country?

PeterS

They were? And just who was that?

PeterS

Snip>>>“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the principal oversight committee of the House of Representatives and may at ‘any time’ investigate ‘any matter’ as set forth in House Rule X.”

According to Republicans, there's not!!!