LOUISVILLE – Rep. Jamie Comer, the professional Goober Pyle impersonator favored to become the great Commonwealth’s next governor, following in the footsteps of such legends as Matt Bevin, who remains at-large beyond the long arm of the law, used to be such an advocate for government accountability that he changed the name of the panel he chairs to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.
After assuming leadership of the committee in January 2023, Comer, R-TheFrankfortLoop, 86ed (oooh, I feel an indictment coming) the old title, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to demonstrate just how doggone serious he was about holding those running the government responsible for their actions.
The change, he said at the time, was intended to “return the House Oversight Committee to its proper role,” maintaining majority Democrats in the previous Congress had failed to hold former President Joe Biden appropriately accountable for operating the notorious Biden Crime Family racket out of the White House. Jamie, that brave lad, said he intended to “root out waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in the federal government and hold the Biden-Harris Administration accountable.”
There’s that word again.
Of course those efforts went down the drain like a Broadway show that closes on opening night. Comer hounded Biden’s son, Hunter, for months, conducting hearing after hearing and casting unproven insinuation after unproven regarding his business activities, particularly those involving Chinese clients, and maintained that his old man was on the take, operating as a consigliere to the whole, insidious scheme while serving as vice president and then president.
It was all to no avail. People literally laughed at and ridiculed poor Jamie, the accountability czar, for pumping up a whole lotta nothin’. It, frankly, left him looking like a dope.
Yet Jamie was unfazed.
“The Oversight Committee exposed President Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s multimillion-dollar influence peddling schemes and sent criminal referrals to the Department of Justice recommending prosecution of his son and brother for their lies to Congress to protect the ‘Big Guy,’” Comer said just before the November 2024 elections.
There were no indictments, Biden provided those pestered by Comer’s antics with blanket presidential pardons to avoid the sort of politically motivated prosecutions that have become a hallmark of President-cum-Dictator Donald J. Trump and his ilk.
(For the record, I thought those pardons set a bad precedent and shouldn’t have been issued despite fears of a vendetta).
Anyway, Accountability Czar Jamie Comer was stoked sicing the powers of his committee against Hunter Biden and his confederates with nothing to show for it. Now that his pal DJT is president and abusing the powers of the office to a breathtaking degree, financially benefiting his family to the tune of billions of dollars, poor Jamie appears to have lost all enthusiasm for the accountability project.
In fact, with little fanfare, Comer’s panel last year was renamed yet again, back to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
No more accountability. Not that any truly existed in the first place.
It’s increasingly obvious that Comer isn’t interested in cleaning up the mess in Washington that everyone outside of the so-called DMV easily recognizes. Jamie’s claims were all just so much horse manure. All he wants to do is manufacture phony claims of wrongdoing on enemy Democrats while seeking to shield the Republican administration from any sort of legitimate inquiry.
Comer’s intent was obvious from the get-go. In March 2023, soon after assuming the committee chair, Comer abruptly halted an investigation, initiated by Democrats, into Trump’s financial dealings during his first term as president. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-MD, aka The Smart Jamie, who then served as ranking Democrat on Comer’s committee, said the probe was opened to determine if Trump was involved in “unauthorized, unreported and unlawful payments by foreign governments…’’
Jamie made sure it was gone with the wind.
It’s no secret that Trump and his family currently are making money hand over fist through cryptocurrency, an area over which Trump as president may exercise some influence.
In other words, the boy is putting money in his own pocket.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump’s involvement with cryptocurrency provided him with a windfall about $1.4 billion last year “according to his latest financial disclosure report, an unprecedented surge in income that came alongside earnings from royalty deals, real estate and legal settlements.’’
Then there’s this from Traders Union, an online financial trading site:
“Donald Trump, once a vocal critic of cryptocurrencies, has made a dramatic shift by becoming a significant player in the digital asset space. From launching his own meme coins to investing in blockchain projects, Trump crypto holdings have grown into a fascinating topic of discussion. His involvement has sparked debates over financial ethics, market manipulation, and the future of crypto regulations under his influence.’’
Meanwhile, Comer, who wasted months on Hunter Biden, sits and does nothing with what seems for all the world to be easy pickins.
Our boy hasn’t had much to say on the issue for a while. In fact, last October, after spending months defaming Hunter Biden, he said it was okay for Trump and his boys to profit from the presidency.
In an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN, Comer said:
“The difference between the way the Trump family operates and the Biden family is they’re admitting they’re doing this,’’ Jamie said. “The president campaigned as a business guy.’’
Now, perhaps in some world, what Jamie Comer said makes sense. It’s just not in this world. It’s okay to use the White House to make billions of dollars as long as you acknowledge you’re going to abuse the powers of the office for your financial gain. Biden’s big sin, apparently, was he didn’t admit he was using the office to cash in — although it was never established that Biden did any such thing.
“A lot of people are concerned, especially since the crypto industry isn’t regulated,’’ Comer told Tapper. “But as far as my position now, as long as the president’s disclosing this and they’re filling out disclosures and they’re answering questions, he answers questions about it. If you ask him about his crypto, he’ll say, ‘Yes, they’ve got the best crypto [currency] in the world.’”
Well, ain’t that a relief.
Here’s the thing Jamie, the dull boy, doesn’t understand — If Trump wants to be president, then be president. If he wants to be a businessman, be a businessman. But never the twain shall meet.
There’s loads of other examples of corruption in this administration. He still intends to go home to Mar-a-Lago after his term ends with the weird payoff from Quatar of a Boeing 747-8 transformed into an ersatz Air Force One, which on the face of it seems to violate the Foreign Emoluments Clause in the Constitution. But as long as he admits he’s going to take it, at least in Jamie world, it’s okay.
And this might be the dude who winds up as governor of Kentucky.
There’s a line in a 1997 film The Rainmaker, where a young lawyer, played by Matt Damon, asks a soiled corporate attorney played by Jon Voight, “I’m just wondering, do you even remember when you first sold out?’’
Well, do you Jamie?