There’s a meme going around, popularized by political commentator Charlie Sykes, warning that “a clown with a flamethrower still has a flamethrower.’’
Rep. Jamie Comer, R-TheFrankfortLoop, doesn’t require a red, bulbous nose or layers of greasepaint to convince everyone that he is Kentucky’s answer to Emmett Kelly, a buffoon who draws laughs and ridicule tripping on his over-sized shoes. But as chair of the powerful House Oversight and Accountability Committee he controls a flamethrower that constantly poses a threat to the body politic.
Fortunately for the republic, Comer’s use of the weapon handed to him by the House GOP leadership has to this point resulted in a series of embarrassing mis-firings, the latest being his insistence that former Democratic senator and secretary of state Hillary Clinton appear before his panel to divulge what she knows about the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, a friend of the powerful who was once convicted of procuring a minor for prostitution and who ultimately faced indictment for operating a child sex trafficking racket before his suicide.
Clinton, answering a committee subpoena, stated at various times and before Comer’s panel in a closed-door hearing that she never so much as met Jeffrey Epstein and knew nothing about his patently evil predilections. Nothing was presented during the hearing to establish otherwise.
So, given all that, why was Clinton called? The answer is simple: Comer abused his position to play politics by seeking to focus the public’s attention on Democrats who associated with Epstein, including Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, thus diverting attention away from Republicans who associated with the sexual deviant, including, as you may have heard, President-cum-Dictator Donald J. Trump.
Comer, who has proved himself an incompetent and intellectual lightweight over and over again, has consistently used his position as head of the committee, a panel invested with subpoena power and charged with ensuring “the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of the federal government and all its agencies,’’ to protect Republican interests and scrutinize Democratic activities with a jaundiced eye.
The results since Comer assumed the committee chair 38 months ago speak volumes as he specifically sought to undermine the administration of Trump’s predecessor, former President Joe Biden, with bogus investigations and innuendo supplanting facts.
It started with what Comer characterized as an investigation into the “Biden crime family,’’ the president’s connections while in office with the business interests of his troubled son, Hunter Biden, particularly in Asia.
While Hunter used his family name to open doors to business opportunities, President Biden consistently maintained he took a hands-off approach to his son’s commercial dealings. The committee probe revealed only trivial evidence to the contrary, like Biden speaking with his son while the latter was in a business meeting.
Nonetheless, Comer instigated an impeachment inquiry, asserting that his panel had uncovered plenty of evidence to remove Biden from office. The committee issued a final report accusing the then president of abuse of office and fraud.
It went nowhere. Ultimately, Comer was unable to convince anyone that Biden benefitted financially from his son’s transactions or that he took any official action to assist him in any way. The whole thing was a farce, depending on unreliable witnesses and unsupportable claims.
Comer was left a laughing stock. Some things never change.
Now, let’s go forward a couple years to President-cum-Dictator Donald J. Trump who, according to a report issued last year by the Associated Press, has “leveraged the power of his office for personal gain unlike anyone before in history.’’
“From crypto coins to bibles, overseas development deals to an upcoming line of cellphones, Trump family businesses have raked in hundreds of millions of dollars since his election, an unprecedented flood of often shadowy money from billionaires, foreign governments and cryptocurrency tycoons with interests before the federal government.’’
In a report, the Democratic minority on the House Oversight anf Accountability Committee declared, Trump “is overseeing one of the most corrupt administrations in American history.’’
“In his first term, President Donald Trump went to unprecedented lengths to use the presidency for his personal enrichment, pocketing millions of dollars from special interests willing to pay for his favor through his business entities,’’ the minority panel said. “This included millions of dollars from foreign states and royalty pouring into Trump hotels and other properties in clear violation of the Constitution, which prohibits payments from foreign governments—known as foreign emoluments—to a sitting President.’’
Is Comer looking into this matter, where the claims are infinitely more substantial than they ever were against Biden?
Surely you jest.
Appearing on CNN late last year, Comer said it’s okay for Trump to use his elected position to rake in the dough because he’s open about it.
“The difference between the way the Trump family operates and the Biden family is they’re admitting they’re doing this.’’ Comer said. “The president campaigned as a business guy.’’
That, friends, might be the one stupidest thing an individual has ever uttered. Call it the Comer Rule: You can take millions of dollars in pay-offs as long as you acknowledge same.
Then we had the infamous Autopen Scandal of 2024, with Comer leading his committee on its merry way again, claiming that the 83-year-old Biden was so addled by the end of his term that he couldn’t tell up from down. So his staff used an autopen to attach his name to bills, pardons – including one for Hunter — and other documents without his knowledge, thus rendering them void.
It was all so much baloney, a claim that was further trumped up by, well, Trump himself.
There was no evidence. Biden asserted he was aware of all the documents receiving his imprimatur. Then this week the New York Times reported that the Department of Justice “was ultimately unable to move forward with making a case’’ regarding the autopen.
The article continued, “…veteran prosecutors were skeptical from the outset that there was anything close to sufficient evidence to justify criminal charges…’’
So, another big bad, brave investigation by our Sherlock Homes, James Richardson Comer Jr., bites the dust.
Now let’s return to Epstein. The ugly matter is well worth a congressional investigation and then some. Epstein befriended numerous people in high places, Democrats and Republicans, and may have provided the means for sexual favors to some of them. The lives of girls and young women caught up in his schemes were ruined.
So, it would be nice to say Comer entered this battle for altruistic reasons.
That, of course, would be foolish.
Comer’s entire intent has been to keep the wolves away from the Republican door. Instead of proceeding in a fair, bipartisan manner, which is called for in cases like this, he subpoenaed Hillary Clinto, with no connections to Epstein, and former President Bill Clinton, who has acknowledged his relationship with Epstein but denied any knowledge about his sinful ways.
If you maintain Bill Clinton was fair game in this whole mess, why hasn’t Comer sought an audience with Trump, who knew Epstein for an extended period and who Epstein once characterized as his best friend? Trump, in fact, is mentioned more than a thousand times in the so-called Epstein papers, the official Justice Department report into his nefarious schemes.
Appearing with Sean Hannity on Fox News last month, Comer instead said Trump was “completely exonerated’’ by the Epstein papers, though he failed to explain how so. .
“If there had been any dirt on Donald Trump, that would have leaked out because Donald Trump has that many enemies in the Department of Justice, in the deep state apparatuses that were supposed to be investigating Epstein,” Comer said. “So with respect to Trump, I don’t think there’s anything there.”
Now that is some weak tea.
It now appears the committee will take testimony from a Republican, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who has volunteered to testify. Lutnick was once Epstein’s next-door neighbor and has in the past proved misleading about his association with the sexual pervert.
But Comer is tripping up. Again. Subpoenaing Bill Clinton, the first time a former president has been required to testify before a congressional committee, opens the door to forcing Trump to make a similar appearance before a congressional panel in the future, a possibility if or when the Democrats regain control of the House.
And the natives are getting restless. Congress, primarily through the efforts of Rep. Thomas Massie, R-SomewhereorotherLewisCounty, voted earlier this year to require the Justice Department to release all the documents related to the Epstein case. National Public Radion reported recently that the agency had failed to do so. Some of those papers may relate to the Trump-Epstein relationship, a friendship Trump maintains ended some years ago.
Despite Comer’s protestations, a bipartisan coalition on the House Oversight and Investigations Committee voted to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi to explain why her office failed to full comply with the congressional demand.
Could be, at least in this instance, they’re taking the flamethrower away from the clown.