CTH has never pretended or played the game of pretending, but several people have discussed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee against the backdrop of the Joe and Hunter Biden investigation. Thus, some general reminders about inside DC politics are perhaps valuable.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, hereafter called the House Oversight Committee or HOC, has a very specific function in DC that too few understand. Once again, let us be clear while trying to explain decades of false information founded upon arcane legislative outlooks.
This article is specific only to the House Oversight Committee.
Within Washington DC, the HOC has a very specific and unique function. What Fox News is to corporate conservative punditry, so too is the HOC to the same DC system of pretending. The House Oversight Committee is the “Chaff and Countermeasures” committee. The HOC operates for both parties with the same mission.
In recent years, the appearances by various DC politicians on the Sean Hannity show should serve as a key indicator for the Chaff and Countermeasures operation. If the politician is on the Hannity ‘tick-tock’ show, you are watching countermeasures. We are not yet at the point where this is widely understood, it will be for the next generation to look back and expose it.
♦ HOC – The House Oversight Committee was/is created by the House legislative leadership to make money for the party in control of the Chair. When the House Speaker is notified of a DC corruption issue, inside his/her office they will often be heard saying, “give it to oversight.” The intent of that instruction is to give the issue to the HOC, so they can hold hearings, create soundbites and fundraise from the issue.
Making money for the party in control of the Chair is the primary function of the House Oversight Committee. The HOC does not exist to create accountability or oversight; the HOC exists to exploit the issue for fundraising and satiate the base voters of the party in control of the Chair. The HOC presents the illusion of accountability by constructing soundbites and member performances which are then broadcast on television for appearances to the voting audience. It is essentially theater.
The HOC is a “general oversight’ committee, not a committee of “specific jurisdiction.” Thus, the HOC is the vehicle where Democrats and Republicans publicly display their political initiatives, frame their narratives and then broadcast them on MSNBC, CNN (Democrats) or FOX NEWS (Republicans).
Depending on the issues at hand, the HOC committee members are generally those performance actors best known to the audience of both parties. This is not accidental; this is by design. Again, for emphasis, I am only talking about the HOC, a “generalized oversight” committee. Only this specific committee has this specific mission.
A hot button topic enters the committee ecosphere. Specifically trained staffers and performance artists, uniquely qualified to put on theatrical productions (both parties), are then deployed to assist the representatives in creating the soundbites that hopefully will go viral and assist them with fundraising and opportunities to say, “here’s what we are doing.” Outlining this construct is not an exhibition in cynicism; this is the reality of what the HOC is designed and created to do.
When you see the HOC performing at their best, you will see lots of soundbites created.
The Chair of the HOC is always part of the House Speaker’s close inner circle. From that association you will discover by training, by habit and by consequence, the HOC framework is developed to sustain the process itself as an end result.
The questioning is the sum total of all accountabilities. The performance is the interview; the conversation is the point; the smoke is the fire.
Oversight, in the HOC framework of narrative creation, has evolved into reveling in the endless process (a fundraising proposition) and, as a consequence, it completely ignores the end point, misses the bottom line, doesn’t actually SEE the subject matter, and never actually applies accountability toward what might be discovered. This is why you end up with high blood pressure, frustrated with the questions not asked, and throwing bricks at the screen or monitors when viewing.
The point of HOC hearings is to create what are now described as “viral moments” that can be used to generate money. The second, and lesser objective, is to give the illusion of accountability while not actually ever holding anyone or anything accountable. See prior HOC reference points like Fast and Furious, IRS targeting, Benghazi, the Twitter Files of the most recent Hunter and Joe Biden bribery schemes.
If you watch the HOC Twitter hearing through the prism of expecting some form of accountability for the pay-to-play corruption, you will be frustrated and disappointed. However, if you watch the HOC hearings through the prism of how well the panelists will do at raising money from their performances, then you can evaluate the effectiveness – the proverbial winning and losing.
The HOC is designed by House leadership to perform the same basic function for both Democrats and Republicans. The HOC committee assignments are selected based on the theatrical skills of each representative.
This is not to say the motives of the members are sullied or impure, it is simply to point out the motive of the committee itself is to generate fundraising from the skillsets of the members on the committee.
Once you fully grasp what the intent of the House Oversight Committee is about, and once you drop the expectation that any accountability in oversight is the intent, then you can watch the performances through the entertainment prism of partisan politics and genuinely enjoy them. There are, after all, some exceptional soundbites and moments created by the hearings themselves.
The HOC is called the “Chaff and Countermeasures” Committee, because that’s essentially what the committee does. The committee gives the appearance of targeting, steers the target to a controlled destination, and then distracts the audience from the outcome of accountability.
If sunlight is achieved, meaning the Mainstream Media cannot ignore the issue as presented and questioned, and if the general public become more familiar with the controversial subject matter or topic at hand, and if the party of the Chair can fundraise from the issue, then the committee has succeeded. However, if you are looking for something to change as an outcome of any HOC hearing, you will be disappointed.
All of the insiders in Washington DC know this to be true; but, when discussing the HOC specifically, the insiders cannot violate the DC code of omerta and make this reality a part of the public consciousness. To make this operational mission widely understood is to diminish the financial value of it.
ANY internal oversight mechanism is there to protect the agency/organization. That is true in the military, federal agencies, whatever. Never bring complaints forward internally or peripherally with an associated entity because you’ll get railroaded or Arkancided.
Yup!
Human resources is good for that.
One thing is for certain, if Speaker McCarthy wants Biden impeached, it is because the establishment wants Biden impeached. And if the establishment wants Biden impeached, it believes it can still control the narrative. Like the debt ceiling, McCarthy is there to sell out MAGA big time.
evil begets evil and arrogance breeds stupidity…. political maggots like mccarthy, murkowski, mittens, mcconnell and all other uniparty sellouts have the same handlers, as SD has stated it’s 1 big club. If the feckless house repubs don’t begin impeachment proceedings for biden, garland, wray amd mayorkas this week, they are on a one month vaca and don’t return until September. McCarthy the gutless wonder is deliberately running out the clock! And Comer’s criminal referrals to DOJ will b as useful as recycled toilet paper….
I have to agree, nothing actually ever happens. Gowdy is a perfect example of the chosen ones. He had me going early on, back when I actually watched FOX, thinking he was going to tear into the corruption and clean it up.
Turned out he was nothing but just another useless blow hard spewing his lines.
To put the stamp of approval on his outstanding uselessness FOX gave him his own show as if he’s a special blow hard, up there almost on a Hannity level of blow hard. I’ve never watched one episode.
And now it’s Comer, sounds hopeful now, but in reality how long before he has his own FOX show and Biden’s are scot free celebrating the opening of the Biden Presidential Library and Fine Art Museum?
I expected Trey to actually imprison somebody, then, it did not happen and I realized it was all a show.
Same. Over and over it’s all for show.
It’s ONE for the money, TWO for the show.
I was devastated when Trey turned out to be a traitor. We had both lived in Spartanburg, SC and he had a wonderful record as our D.A. so I thought for sure he was going to go in and save the day but he was only one of many who betrayed us. Now we are seasoned and our eyes are opened and I thank Sundance for that.
But Trey got his TV gig? Mission Accomplished!
The behavior of the leadership of the DOJ and FBI don’t surprise me whatsoever. I just finished “The Devil’s Chessboard” and grew up in D.C. during the reign of terror under the leadership of Allan Dulles, CIA and if you read it, you will understand the web of players in a very dark world of “intelligence” gone rogue. If you think these times are bad; consider a President and his Attorney General brother were assassinated along with countless others. It looks to me like the Biden’s may have bitten off more than they can chew.
Political theater is the mainstay of DC Republicans. They talk and have hearings, go on Fox News and other outlets and then, wait for it, the big NOTHING and then it’s on to the next”big” thing. So predictable.
Isn’t all government theater?
While Democrats get results from fabrications and fantasies the Republicans cannot even get a Democrat staffer fired for overt crimes.
This is the definition of insanity. How could a person with any self respect continue to return to a job day after day, knowing that his or her feckless actions are at the very least- unproductive and irresponsible and at worst dangerous and extremely harmful for the majority of Americans? Pure unadulterated evil, is all I can think of -rapacious Can even one congress member be trusted at this point?
Those who have paid attention over the years to the “do nothing” congresses learned early on ANY of the Congressional committees are kabuki. Sundance can print his excellent explanation over and over and over. However, 99% of America is taken in by the theater. It’s the foundation for the wide spread conclusion – “nothing will happen” – which is an effective neutering of the American spirit.
This government has NO ACCOUNTABLITY. Biden should CLEARLY be IMPEACHED or thrown out based on the 25th amendment, but NOTHING WILL HAPPEN in the end. It is all smoke and mirrors to protect the criminal and fraudulent politicians. And now we have ROGUE PROSECUTORS attacking the CONSTITUTIONAL rights of opposing candidates which is ALSO a VIOLATION of FEDERAL LAW.
This makes the federal government illegitimate and must be thrown down. The states need to start over.
REPUBLICANT’S and REPUBLICWONT’S that is all the majority in our so-called party!!
We have a few that will fight but who know when they will be bought off MTG…………………..
TIME TO CLEAN HOUSE and SENATE!!
The HOC theater probably isn’t a very effective fundraising strategy anymore for the RNC, as most people contribute directly to their candidate now and won’t give a dime to Ronna McFailure’s Clubhouse. We can’t help it if corporate & neocon donors are still saps who give big bucks to the GOP Failure Party. (Playing “Losers” is their role in this theatrical production)
It’s true that it’s a major disappointment that HOC never does anything but write harsh letters and subpoena witnesses, but it is interesting sometimes to hear what witnesses say that are called up to testify. They try hard to give us information despite the efforts of many on the HOC to prevent them from speaking and being cut off by Congressmen “Reclaiming my Time” when the witness deviates from their narrative and interferes with the sound bite they hoped to create. I learned some things from the IRS whistleblowers that no one repeats. For example they confirmed that “The Big Guy” (referred to in the discovered Hunter Biden communications that outline his extortion/bribery crimes), is in fact Joe Biden. In a Just world that would be enough for immediate impeachment proceedings, especially since they already have the bank records that prove the numerous shell companies the Bidens set up as an elaborate subterfuge for their money laundering of the Millions they took in this way. Which they didn’t pay taxes on. So it’s clearly Tax Evasion also. Not to mention that it’s been shown that the POTUS and his son are Foreign Agents and should have registered as such. So that’s another crime most definitely worthy of Impeachment. We have a compromised POTUS giving sweetheart treatment to an enemy country, China and corrupt Fascist Dictator, ZeFraudsky. Even though this could mean the ultimate destruction of the US, if not the entire human race as we move toward WW3 which will likely be a nuclear/biological war.
Still, McCarthy and his Sycophants (another choice role in the theater) dodge the overwhelming demand from the people for Impeachment of Joe Biden and finally agree to “an Impeachment Inquiry”, meaning they will write more harsh letters and subpoena more witnesses. The drama goes on despite most of the audience saying “Get the hook!. Get these people off the stage already and bring on the dancing monkeys.”
What one can learn from this well-staged production is that the Biden Crime Family is even more powerful than Al Capone ever was. Capone was a notorious mafia kingpin who managed to evade prosecution until they finally got him on Tax Evasion and he received an 11 year prison sentence. Hunter just gets a slap on the wrist with Probation and none of the other Bidens even face charges. Think about the reality that we have a powerful crime syndicate in the White House and indeed running most of our government. In the 60’s, horror movies predicted this, that Organized Crime would try to make themselves “legitimate” by infiltrating government, and now here we are.
Still it helps to learn what we can about what we are actually dealing with. Right now HOC helps with that effort if you’re willing to watch or tape the hearings live and not just rely on the approved media soundbites. We are in a unique place in history and it helps to know what to tell your grandchildren since it is guaranteed this information won’t be in the history books.
” … party in control of the Chair …”. Do I need to ask which party controls the chair? It is certainly not obvious to me.
and we are paying for all this nonsense