(Should have put this one up first.) This guy is a wimp. How in the hail he became leader of the Oversight Committee is unknown. He does very well at obfuscating and blocking important issues that need to be handled. But yesterday, he was stunned not only by Democrats but also by a handful of Republicans to bring Blondi in to answer questions. It’s about damn time. Now, yes, I did a Blondi column yesterday, but this is specifically about Comer, so it’s different, I promise. Thank you, Raw Story:
On Wednesday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) was caught by surprise when five Republican members of his committee made it clear they wanted to haul Attorney General Pam Bondi into a hearing to explain her Jeffrey Epstein files foot-dragging. Appearing on MS NOW on Thursday morning, Kurt Bardella, who served as the spokesperson for the committee when it was previously under Republican control, claimed that Comer was then forced to scramble.
The question is, can they find her in contempt if she refuses to answer, and if so, will it do any good? I have no idea how that would work. But back to Comer, he absolutely did not know how important it was to the committee and to the survivors and the rest of us waiting on *all* the files. It appears that if there’s a majority on something, he can’t overrule it, but I’m not sure how that works. I have no congressional experience and even less legal experience. Alrighty then. Moving on.
Calling the approval of bringing Bondi in “interesting timing,“ Bardella said the chair did not see it coming. “Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are frustrated with the redactions, with files going up, files being taken down, other media entities doing investigative work, coming up with information that the committee doesn’t actually have in real time,” Bardella explained. “So, frustration finally reached this boiling point.”
“And you saw yesterday a bipartisan –– I mean, this is how this is an incredibly rare thing to have right now in this highly narrow majority, that Republicans have –– a bipartisan group of members voted to subpoena the attorney general, blindsiding the chairman, James Comer, at the start of his hearing yesterday to the point where he had to kind of punt that vote to later in the day to figure out what the deal was,” he reported.
It’s fantastic that we had a bipartisan decision. It seems Republicans are looking ahead to the midterms, so they may be more willing to work across the aisle and get things *done*. This lollygagging around is incredibly frustrating. Ever since the damn BUB passed, they’ve been lounging around, resting on their laurels *snort*. At least everyone finally got together on Epstein. That’s been a long time coming.
“And it ended up having five Republicans join every congressional Democrat on that committee to vote for Bondi to come and start answering questions.” He then pointed out, “The key thing here, the most important thing about this, is it’s a closed-door deposition; it’s not a public hearing. She will not be able to grandstand and filibuster the way she did in the [Senate] Judiciary Committee meeting a few weeks ago. This is a time where you have unlimited amounts of time, there’s no five-minute rule. There’s no ‘Oh, I only have a few minutes to get my question in, so you can run out the clock on me.’ It’s a deposition.”
Yup, no time limit. They can ask her questions as long as they want to. Hopefully, folks are dusting off their tablets and making lists of questions. Hopefully, she won’t be able to dodge answering. And hopefully we will actually get *answers*. There’s a lot of hoping. But if enough of us do, it might actually make a difference. You never know.
If anyone has a suggestion to substitute for “Gee, ya THINK?” Please enlighten me. I’m pretty sure I use it far too often. But it’s such a great phrase! See you soon!
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If I remember his name right, Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project advised that this the way to handle Blondi. Keep hauling her in to testify. Since she needs a big fat binder to prompt her talking points, keep her going til she runs out of material. That might happen sooner than later. I couldn’t be more pleased to hear it.
I am mean and nasty and I really want to have her nailed to the wall, figuratively speaking, of course. And for someone to take her stupid “burn book” away from her. She needs to answer the hard questions and it’s about damn time. Having her as AG is laughable.