The Oversight and Government Reform Committee of the House of Representatives in Washington has a stated mission to “exercise effective oversight over the federal government” and work “proactively to investigate and expose waste, fraud, and abuse,” but really it exists to investigate the results of investigations that don’t meet the Republican majority’s political narrative.
Look at what they did with Benghazi. After eight investigations into the killing of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, House Republicans on the Committee spent two years and $7 million of taxpayer money on a ninth investigation only to reach the same conclusion – namely that Hillary Clinton committed no wrongdoing as secretary of state.
Now, on the heels of an exhaustive FBI investigation into Clinton’s use of emails as secretary of state that ended with a recommendation by FBI Director James Comey not to bring any criminal charges against her, these guys are at it again. They are going to investigate Comey’s investigation to see if they can come up with some more dirt – as if this presidential election isn’t coarse enough.
Never mind that Americans are grappling with the horror of a racially motivated ambush that killed five police officers in Dallas while they worked to protect the peaceful protest of two more black men killed at the hands of police in Louisiana and Minnesota. Never mind the world economy is still feeling the aftershocks of the Brexit vote. Forget the sinister metastasis of Islamic State and other terrorists, the Zika virus, an immigration crisis and rising tensions with North Korea, House Republicans’ priority is to spend more of their time and our money on another political witch hunt. They are obsessed with Hillary Clinton and refuse to let go of her and let the election take its course. They stalk her and it’s weird – like the spooky resemblance of Trey Gowdy and Draco Malfoy.
House Republicans on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee think if they pull every little “gotcha” string, the Clinton mantle will unravel. They desperately insist nothing will turn into something, so here we are again.
Clinton told committee members in an epic 11-hour hearing on Benghazi on Oct. 22, 2015, that “there was nothing marked classified on my emails, either sent or received.”
On July 7, 2016, Comey said the FBI found three of Clinton’s emails – out of more than 30,000 emails reviewed – that contained a classification mark, a “(C),” within the document by certain paragraphs, but had no classification marks in the header of the document, where they were also supposed to be.
NOT ACTUALLY CLASSIFIED
And here’s the kicker: A State Department spokesman said Wednesday that the letter markings on those three emails resulted from “human error” and never belonged in the emails in the first place, as the material wasn’t actually classified.
Comey’s conclusion there was no evidence of criminal intent and that Clinton should not be prosecuted was despite his personal opinion that she and State Department staff were extremely careless. No reasonable prosecutor would bring charges with the facts, he said. Clinton reasonably believed some of the disputed emails were unclassified because they weren’t properly marked.
So, Clinton believed some of the emails weren’t classified because they weren’t properly marked, and further believed she didn’t send or receive marked classified information, and in fact some of the emails were improperly marked and the three in question that she sent or received were improperly marked classified and were not classified.
And we need another investigation? In the course of an 11-hour hearing the uttered words, given these facts, “there was nothing marked classified on my emails, either sent or received” will again be the focus of the committee charged with government oversight?
Talk about waste, fraud and abuse.
Hillary Clinton is running to be elected president of the United States, not the virgin queen mother. The notion that she is expected to be lily white and pure is as offensive as the apparent belief by committee members that a regular campaign against her by their party’s nominee can’t win without the assist of a bunch of partisan hacks on our dime.
House Republicans don’t get it. They think Americans are sitting around at home cheering for them as they sit in their fancy seats with their fancy clothes on, playing Perry Mason. They think they are heroes for unearthing little inconsistencies and picking at little scabs when really nobody with a family that’s struggling to get by and stay safe gives two hoots about their purity ball.
FBI Director Comey spoke publicly of his agency’s thorough investigation of Clinton and her homebrew email server and concluded no reasonable prosecutor would bring a criminal case against her and he’s a Republican. He has clout and credibility across the aisle – or at least he did until he announced the decision not to recommend prosecution and killed the Hillary-in-a-prison-jumpsuit fantasy.
IN LIEU OF GOVERNING
Now House Republicans panting for more power are beside themselves more than ever about the possibility an old lady in a pantsuit becoming commander in chief so they decided again to investigate in lieu of governing. Again House Republicans are placing their own bizarre personal hatred of a powerful woman over the needs of the American people, applying their all-too-familiar double standards and hypocrisy. Remember the investigation when James Clapper was asked by Congress if the NSA spies on millions of Americans, and he said, “No”?
Me neither.
Americans don’t want police officers to be shot, and we don’t want black men to be shot by police officers. We don’t want our kids to be shot at school, and we want our kids to go to college. We don’t want war with North Korea or to be infected by the Zika virus, and we don’t want income inequality or childhood poverty. What we want is economic security and safety for our families and an opportunity to get ahead. Surely those tasked with governing should be doing something meaningful to address these pressing issues when they are on the clock.
Cynthia Dill is a civil rights lawyer and former state senator. She can be contacted at:
dillesquire@gmail.com
Twitter: dillesquire
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