Politics is theater, and the Republicans are Tony Award winners.
A prime example is the protracted kerfuffle over the "Fast & Furious" gun-walking scheme, the ATF's dumb idea dating to the Dubya administration -- allow powerful assault weapons bought in the U.S. to "walk" into Mexico, so we could trace them to the nasty narco-trafficantes and bust up their drug cartels. But guns disappeared in droves, untraced. Oblivious, the ATF kept up the practice and kept losing guns. They gun-walked one last time in 2009, after Obama was in the White House. After a federal agent was killed with a hot gun, AG Eric Holder shut down the operation.
Itching to pin a scandal on Obama, the R's tried to paint Fast & Furious as some sort of cover-up, led by Darrell Issa (R-Cal), chairman of the House Oversight Committee. Holder testified before Issa 9 times, gave him 7500 documents, and acknowledged it was a stupid program (not of his making). Nothing scandalous was uncovered but Issa would not relent, so Obama invoked executive privilege and shut down the witch-hunt. House Republicans responded by voting Holder in contempt of Congress. It's just a show; total bullshit theater.
[Here's part of Buster's 2/7/11 post on Mr. Issa:
How this slimy, unsavory criminal ever got elected to Congress, I don't know. He's one of those self-made men, a car alarm tycoon personally worth $250 million. But before he made his fortune, Issa was a punk -- a high school drop-out (who eventually earned a GED and college degree). He has been indicted for auto theft, insurance fraud, illegally carrying a concealed handgun and a tear-gas gun (a tear-gas gun?), and was suspected of arson in a total loss fire at the offices of his own company. And this is the man in charge of oversight and investigation? Who's in charge of the oversight and investigation of Darrell Issa?]
And Prime Example #2 is the GOP's never-ending mission to destroy ObamaCare. They tried to kill it when it was a bill, but it had the votes and was signed into law. They tried to kill it by having the Supreme Court declare it unconstitutional, but the SCOTUS didn't see it that way and the law was upheld. But even with ObamaCare safe for now, Weeper of the House John Boehner (R-OH), in a completely meaningless gesture of futility, has called for yet another House vote to repeal Obamacare. (This is something like the 30th time they've tried it.) Orange John knows any repeal vote in the House is DOA in the Senate. Doesn't matter -- it's still good political B.S. theater, and longer-running than Cats!
The Orange Man even claims that the Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act "will destroy the greatest health care delivery system in the world." Yeah, it's great if you can afford the ever-increasing premiums and deductibles and out-of-pocket costs. But if you can't afford it, or there's something already wrong with you, Mr. Boner believes that's your own fault --health care is a privilege for the well-to-do, not a right, and you had the same opportunity as he did to be healthy and successful and participate in this great system. If you can't afford our great system, you're just a pathetic loser.
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