Al Franken warns of investigations/oversight hearings of the Obama Administration

By Kay Daly
July 27, 2010 3:05 PM

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From your mouth to God's ears, Stuart Smalley. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Smalley

This is a curious piece for a number of reasons. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/polit ... 72534.html
My dad used to say if you don't speed, you don't need a radar detector. Doesn't Al Franken's concern over the possibility of oversight hearings pique your interest as to what the Obama Administration is seeking to hide from an investigation?

In particular, Franken sounds the alarm about Congressman Darrell Issa's alleged plans to double the oversight committee staff. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darrell_Issa Ordinarily, I would dismiss any such notion of nearly any Republican suddenly gaining a backbone and daring to challenge anything that the Obama Administration does, but in Issa's case, Franken may be on to something.

He's wrong, of course, about Issa's "secret plans" to double the staff in some diabolical plot. Whenever a party takes over the majority, the budget they are slated to receive as a majority chairman versus as a ranking member of a committee for the minority is increased. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranking_member If Issa has plans to hire smart conservatives to do some much-needed investigating, more power to him, but it is hardly part of a secret plot. Congressman Darrell Issa is fast becoming well known for being a thorn in Obama's side without a ton of committee staff, so it is no wonder the thought of Issa with a chairman's budget has Franken and his fellow liberals gulping hard.

That is, if there is something to hide. If there is nothing to hide, then there is nothing to worry about, right Al?

What was it that Al Franken's fellow Judiciary Committee member Lindsay Graham said the other day while stabbing his party in the back over the Elena Kagan vote? Oh yes. "Elections have consequences." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Kagan

But I digress.

Franken also used the tired old saw about the "corporate backers" of the GOP. That is one myth that should be nipped in the bud once and for all. If anything, Republicans enjoy far more support from small business owners. The big old corporations are opportunists. Corporate PACS and employees of corporations do give to Republicans, but only when they can do something for them and that usually means when they are in the majority. Otherwise, just try to get a call returned from a CEO when you are a Senator or a Congressman in the minority. Good luck.

Don't believe me? There is a fabulous little website called OpenSecrets.org http://www.opensecrets.org/ and it discloses the campaign reports for Al and his congressional buddies. Check it out. http://www.opensecrets.org/ You'll quickly see that donors from every industry write far more checks to the leftists like Al. Like General Electric, Microsoft and Time Warner, http://www.timewarner.com/ right Senator Franken? Not to mention the massive infusion of cash from trial lawyers and union bosses.

Franken also tries to innoculate the Obama Administration from any potential investigation, preemptively calling any investigation a "witch hunt." Expect this kind of language to crop up if anyone dares to even attempt any kind of oversight function. It will be called racist, too. Bet on it.

But remember back to the heady days at the beginning of this delightful era of hope and change -- when Obama made all kinds of promises about openness and sunshine, etc? What happened there? When there is nothing to hide, one doesn't mind oversight, one welcomes it as an opportunity to show improvement or even make improvements. When there is something to hide, there is panic, alarms are sounded about even the possibility of oversight hearings and terms like "witch hunt" are prematurely tossed about in an attempt to discourage the light of day from hitting the ugly truth.

So, let's say it is 2011. You are Congressman Darrell Issa, the new Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Where would you want to train the spotlight of oversight first? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Sta ... ent_Reform

http://www.gopusa.com/fresh-ink/2010/07 ... ration.php