Jordan to lead House select committee on “weaponization of the federal government” (1 Viewer)

[superchuck500]

Guaranteed shirt show - the only question is how embarrassing it will get.

 

[SaintForLife]

Guaranteed shirt show - the only question is how embarrassing it will get.

Chuck, are you okay with the federal government pressuring social media companies to censor, restrict, or ban what US citizens say on social media?

 

[superchuck500]

Chuck, are you okay with the federal government pressuring social media companies to censor, restrict, or ban what US citizens say on social media?

No, I don’t think it’s appropriate for the actual federal government to “pressure” companies to regulate speech without some real and compelling national security justification that is exercised in the most limited way.

If that’s all this committee is examining, go for it, I would agree that’s a legitimate oversight issue. But Jordan is a partisan hack incapable of real governance, and I expect it will be an attempt at punitive, performative response to J6 and the Trump investigations.

If it’s not a total embarrassment, I’ll buy you a six pack.

 

[SaintForLife]

No, I don’t think it’s appropriate for the actual federal government to “pressure” companies to regulate speech without some real and compelling national security justification that is exercised in the most limited way.

If that’s all this committee is examining, go for it, I would agree that’s a legitimate oversight issue. But Jordan is a partisan hack incapable of real governance, and I expect it will be an attempt at punitive, performative response to J6 and the Trump investigations.

If it’s not a total embarrassment, I’ll buy you a six pack.

I have zero confidence in Jordan, but I don't really have any trust or confidence in many if any House members. Justin Amash is the last House member that I trusted.

 

[FullMonte]

I wonder if this committee even gets off the ground. Is there a precedent for the House exercising oversight over an Executive branch department? How will the courts rule when the DOJ shows that members of the House are people under investigation?

 

[superchuck500]

I wonder if this committee even gets off the ground. Is there a precedent for the House exercising oversight over an Executive branch department? How will the courts rule when the DOJ shows that members of the House are people under investigation?

The House (and Senate) regularly exercise oversight over executive branch agencies. In fact, each agency falls under a specific committee at each house of Congress (e.g the armed services committees have oversight over DOD, the judiciary committees have oversight over DOJ and the courts).

But oversight doesn’t mean control. Committees do have subpoena power and Congress has the power of the purse - but that’s not always the silver bullet it is sometimes presented as. I suppose the Senate also has confirmation power and sometimes they use that as leverage over an agency. Beyond that, they have no other power over the agencies.

 

[MT15]

It will be interesting to watch the same people who ignored Congressional subpoenas for their own actions wax indignant when they get any pushback at all for their own subpoenas. Sadly, I don’t expect them to acknowledge the hypocrisy in the slightest.

 

[MT15]

Also - Chuck - I’m hearing a bit of concern over the stated mission that this committee wants to directly perform oversight on active DOJ criminal investigations. Especially since there are presumably members of Congress who may be at least tangentially involved in those investigations. One who has expressed interest in serving on this committee had his phone seized by the FBI, IIRC.

Can they actually muck around in active investigations that may include MOC?

 

[superchuck500]

Also - Chuck - I’m hearing a bit of concern over the stated mission that this committee wants to directly perform oversight on active DOJ criminal investigations. Especially since there are presumably members of Congress who may be at least tangentially involved in those investigations. One who has expressed interest in serving on this committee had his phone seized by the FBI, IIRC.

Can they actually muck around in active investigations that may include MOC?

They have no authority to muck around with an active DOJ criminal investigation. The need to protect information from an active criminal investigation amounts to privilege and even if subpoenaed, DOJ will refuse to provide such information. It is possible that if the request does not implicate any of the members, there could be some sharing of information in a secure setting (like we see for example with how sensitive intelligence information is sometimes shared with select members of Congress in a close-door setting).

But Congress cannot tell DOJ how to run its investigation, whom to investigate (or not to investigate), what to investigate, etc. The congressional oversight role is part of the distribution and balancing of power, but carrying out the executive role is the responsibility of the executive that acts under the control of the president and cabinet, not Congress. This kind of relationship happens every day, it's just not typically something that Americans think about. But consider, for example, an oil and gas leasing program run by those agencies (e.g. Interior has oil and gas leasing programs) - Congress, through the natural resources or energy committees, regularly seeks information and to influence those programs but they don't actually control how the agencies run their leasing program. Congress can attempt to exert leverage in various ways but those tools ultimately aren't that powerful where the agency has a different agenda and the agency is going do what the executive administration wants to do (provided that it is still consistent with the relevant legislation), not what Congress wants it to do.

By design.

 

[MT15]

So this should be a general reminder that when there is interference and/or corruption at the DOJ and FBI, it almost always favors Republicans. Jordan will have to ignore a whole lot of evidence to the contrary of his premise that they are helping Biden. Good thing he has a lot of experience ignoring evidence.

 

[MT15]

This is just a symptom of the complete shirt show that is this committee:

 

[MT15]

Lol:

 

[MT15]

How the Op-Ed piece opens:

“The House’s new GOP majority is ignoring a key principle I learned during my five years working for Republicans on the House Oversight Committee: Manage expectations. Its “make accusations first, get the facts never” approach to oversight is doomed to over-promise, under-deliver and fall flat with the vast majority of voters.

House Republicans begin with a massive credibility deficit. A recent Navigator Research poll found that only 16% of Americans think the GOP’s obsessive investigations are important. And the Pew Research Center found that 65% of U.S. adults believe Republicans will be overly focused on investigating the Biden administration.”