Liberals and conservatives don’t agree on much, obviously, but they share common ground on one particular political subject – Congress.
They hate it.
The polling firm Gallup last month revealed that only 19 percent of Americans questioned approve of the goings-on on Capitol Hill. That’s not the lowest rating ever – it was 13 percent in October 2023 — and its standing hasn’t crossed the 20 percent threshold since January 2023 when a whole 21 percent gave it the okay.
The animus isn’t hard to understand. Lawmakers, it seems, prefer racking up political points and lassoing power than getting things done. The chambers are simply incapable, for instance, of approving an appropriations package in time for the beginning of the fiscal year on Oct. 1. They haven’t managed to achieve that rather significant goal since 1996.
While it’s true that Congress has rarely captured the hearts of the people – Mark Twain referred to it as the “national asylum for the helpless” – it’s fair to say reverence has dipped dangerously low and there’s no reason to believe, despite the numbers, lawmakers are willing to change their ways.
It’s easy to identify members on both the right and left who exemplify not only the inadequacies of the legislative chambers but the desire to retain their own vaunted status over the needs of the nation.
And it would be difficult to identify a lawmaker who better symbolizes the shortcomings and failures of the nation’s governing body than Rep. James Richardson Come, Jr., the Republican from Tompkinsville, or wherever the heck he’s hanging out these days.
Comer came to Washington in 2016 with a decent reputation, even among Democrats who served with him in the Kentucky General Assembly. But Jamie, as he is best known, has done nothing but further the partisan divide since assuming the chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee in January 2023.
Consider:
Writing in the Wall Street Journal on Dec. 11, 2022, Comer said, “Republicans will return the committee to its proper role: rooting out waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement in the federal government. Committee members will conduct credible oversight, identify problems, and propose reforms.”
He added, “With the power of the gavel in Republican hands, Americans will finally get some of the answers, transparency and accountability they deserve—as well as real solutions. Based on our oversight work, House Republicans will propose reforms that can ease these crises and stop future abuses. We will use every tool at our disposal to make the federal government efficient, effective and accountable.”
Fat chance.
The committee managed to advance a few commendable bills – desperately needed postal service reform being one. But most of Comer’s energy has been directed at a woebegone effort to impeach President Biden for running what he characterized as the “Biden crime family,” a ridiculous and unsuccessful endeavor that cost uncounted millions of dollars, wasted time and resulted in nothing other than making Jamie look silly.
After the Biden fiasco, during the recently concluded presidential campaign, Comer sought to portray Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee for vice president, as some sort of agent for the Chinese government, citing the number of trips Walz took to the communist nation continually at loggerheads with the U.S.
It got nowhere – unless you think traveling with students to Beijing automatically makes you a ChiCom spy — but Comer isn’t letting it go. According to the Daily Caller News Foundation, Comer subpoenaed a Department of Homeland Security for allegedly failing to comply with an investigation into the Walz matter.
Now that Donald J. Trump, a Republican, has been elected president a second time, it can be assumed that he will undergo the same sort of “waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement” scrutiny Comer afforded the Biden administration.
Surely you jest.
Comer rejected requests throughout his first term as committee chair to investigate the numerous departures from propriety committed during the first Trump administration. In fact, he undermined several Trump probes that got underway before he assumed the chair, including one looking into the activities of Jared Kushner and his dealings with the Saudis.
When it was revealed in January 2023 that Biden possessed classified documents he was entitled to after leaving the office of vice president in 2021, Jamie dove right in, seeking the visitor logs for Biden’s residence. When it was pointed out that Trump also illicitly kept classified material – and hesitated to return it – at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Comer brushed it off.
According to Axios, a political website, Comer said he opened an investigation of Biden because he “hasn’t been investigated.” He opted to let Trump off the hook because “there have been so many investigations of President Trump. I don’t feel like we need to spend a whole lot of time investigating President Trump.”
This go-round, Comer already has indicated anything goes during the upcoming Trump administration.
“The days of the deep state are about to end under Donald Trump,” Comer said recently on Fox News Live. “He’s put the right people in place at the Department of Justice, at the CIA, at the FBI, and I think this is what the American people voted for. They knew under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we’ve had a two-tiered system of justice in America. Juries across America have lost confidence in FBI testimony.”
Trump, you might recall, was impeached twice. But Comer wants nothing to do with holding his boy’s feet to the fire.
In other words, it’s open season.
This week the hands-off approach to Trump became even more vivid when he implied he supports the concept of sending those who stood up to Trump during his first four years to prison.
You heard that right.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump instigated an insurrection, seeking to stop Congress from accepting the Electoral College votes in the presidential election he lost to Biden. Hundreds of Trump supporters invaded the Capitol that day, several people died as a result and a number of law enforcement officers were injured.
The House appointed a special committee consisting of Democrats and Republicans – the GOP members, it should be noted, were not Trump enthusiasts — to probe the riot and issue a report. The panel ultimately recommended the Justice Department pursue criminal charges against Trump for his involvement.
Charges against Trump never came to pass. In fact, an intervening Supreme Court case seemed to determine that, as president, Trump was above the law.
With the White House now within his grasp, Trump is suggesting the member of the Jan. 6 committee should spend time in the can. Appearing on Meet The Press on Sunday, Trump said committee members “lied” and “destroyed a whole year and a half worth of testimony.”
“Honestly, they should go to jail,” he said.
And guess who agrees?
“With politicians, if you’ve used a congressional committee and you’ve lied and tried to set people up and falsely imprisoned people, then you should be held accountable,” Comer told The Bulwark, a news and opinion website.
There is no evidence the members of the committee lied and the panel certainly had no authority to arrest anyone. Claims that evidence was destroyed have long since been debunked.
“I haven’t kept up with the Jan. 6 stuff like other people,” Comer told Bulwark.
“I don’t know exactly what Trump was referring to. But I have two years of experience working with one of the Jan. 6 Committee members, and I can tell you he’s been nothing but completely dishonest.”
Comer was referring to Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-MD, who has been the House Oversight Committee’s ranking member since Comer took the helm. Raskin has, frankly, repeatedly made Comer look stupid during committee sessions, particularly when it comes to Biden impeachment, owing to Comer’s obvious displeasure.
In a statement provided to The Hill newspaper, Raskin said, “In America, we jail people only for having committed criminal offenses that they are found guilty of by a unanimous jury of their peers. We don’t jail people for doing their jobs and living up to their constitutional oaths of office.
“It would be nice to live in a time again when people can do their jobs without being threatened with jail time or worse for doing their jobs and living up to their oaths of office,” Raskin said. “We’re proud of the work we did on the Jan. 6 select committee. We are proud of standing up for the Constitution and the rule of law, and we’re still doing it. And we will keep doing it.”
Comer is a boob. He instigated a horse manure impeachment probe against Biden, has repeatedly let Trump off the hook and now wants to send those who had the guts to confront the Mar-a-Lago grifter to the pokey.
That’s the sort of guy Kentucky is sending to Washington to represent its interests. He’s also the sort of guy that has morphed Congress into a horror show that is the focus of the nation’s malevolence.
Jamie Comer is a symbol for everything that is wrong with the current state of American democracy.
Bill, why not write a piece about one fine KY public servant in the House- Rep. Morgan McGarvey? He speaks and works for the needs of the people in this state. I for one could use some upbeat news about someone like Morgan.
I love your articles