October 1, 2015

Republicans Fail at Hearings — Again

Dear Republican Members of Congress: Consider this an intervention. You guys do not understand how to hold a decent hearing. Hillary Clinton danced away from your Benghazi questions like Muhammad Ali. Your threats to hold more hearings on Planned Parenthood and Benghazi are about as frightening as President Obama’s warnings to Vladimir Putin that “doubling down on Assad would be a mistake.” Within hours of Obama’s feeble bleat, Russian planes were dropping bombs on the Syrian resistance (not, it should be noted, on ISIS). Putin’s Russia, once described by John McCain as a “gas station pretending to be a country,” is now running circles around Obama — rushing to fill the power void left by American abdication in the Middle East.

Dear Republican Members of Congress:

Consider this an intervention. You guys do not understand how to hold a decent hearing. Hillary Clinton danced away from your Benghazi questions like Muhammad Ali. Your threats to hold more hearings on Planned Parenthood and Benghazi are about as frightening as President Obama’s warnings to Vladimir Putin that “doubling down on Assad would be a mistake.” Within hours of Obama’s feeble bleat, Russian planes were dropping bombs on the Syrian resistance (not, it should be noted, on ISIS). Putin’s Russia, once described by John McCain as a “gas station pretending to be a country,” is now running circles around Obama — rushing to fill the power void left by American abdication in the Middle East.

Speaking of running circles, that’s pretty much what Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards managed to do at the much-heralded hearing this week. The committee’s chairman announced that the devastating videos produced by the Center for Medical Progress would not be shown during the hearing due to a court order in California. So, instead of the topic of the hour — truly heart-rending footage of aborted babies being picked over for their livers and hearts, to cite just one example — the hearing featured charts showing how much money Planned Parenthood spent on various services over the past year. Riveting.

The videos are the reason the hearing was held at all. It is the videos that have galvanized abortion opponents, moved the debate and put pressure on Congress to once again attempt to defund the organization. If, due to legal wrangling, the videos cannot be shown now, then why not hold off the hearings until they can be shown? The videos are the story. Full stop.

While Richards spouted platitudes and evasions, a congressman from Arizona tried to say that Planned Parenthood focuses on abortions because it’s profitable for them, but he filled his statement/question with jargon like “unit price” and “profit center” and “narrow focus,” and one doubts the point got across. Meanwhile, Richards spoke of cancer screenings and contraceptives and preventing STDs.

Other Republican members, determined to use their five minutes to get five seconds on the evening news or a viral video on Facebook, behaved like talk-radio hosts — interrupting the witness, shouting, and demanding yes or no answers. This is not good government. It isn’t even good theater. You look like bullies.

To repeat: Without the videos, there should have been no hearing. Further, individual members should relinquish — or at least radically scale back — their role in questioning witnesses. A solid investigative technique is to let a lawyer ask most of the questions. A keen lawyer doesn’t showboat or bellow. He or she is well versed in the topic at hand, listens to the witness’s answers and follows up. The Watergate Committee used lawyers most of the time. Sam Dash was the majority (Democratic) counsel. Fred Thompson asked questions for the minority.

Look, you landed a couple of punches; I won’t deny it. It’s now on the record that Richards earns nearly $600,000 per year, another in the long list of nonprofit chiefs who make tidy sums. (Check out the salary of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson.)

But there were so many questions you could have asked. Yes, it’s scandalous that PP sells fetal body parts and tries to disguise it (as the videos make clear). Richards kept saying that donating “tissue” is one of the “services” PP performs for its patients. How is that a service for the woman? Does she share in the money, or does she get the psychic benefit of “finding cures” while PP gets the cash? Speaking of finding cures, does PP support using body parts of condemned criminals for medical research? Just wondering. Unborn babies, of course, are innocent.

You might also have asked Richards what PP’s policy is if a woman requests an abortion at 20 weeks because the baby has a cleft lip or is the “wrong” race or the “wrong” sex. You might have asked her whether patients ever request funerals or burials for their fully formed fetuses. You might have asked whether anyone weeps at the clinics she oversees, and if so, why?

COPYRIGHT 2015 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.