The Politics of Settling Scores: The House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Government

Photo by Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

As the 118th Congress settles in from is clown show of a Speakers election, one of its first orders of business was to create a Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Government.  Designed primarily to give Jim Jordan’s fever dreams voice, the Resolution to establish the investigative body says it will:

issue a final report to the House of its findings (and such interim reports
as it may deem necessary) regarding—

(A) the expansive role of Article II authority vested in the Executive Branch to collect in formation on or otherwise investigate citizens of the United States, including ongoing criminal investigations;

(B) how executive branch agencies work with, obtain information from, and provide information to the private sector, non-profit entities, or other government agencies to facilitate action against American citizens, including the extent, if any, to which illegal or improper, unconstitutional, or unethical activities were engaged in by the Executive Branch or private sector against citizens of the United States;

(C) how executive branch agencies collect, compile, analyze, use, or disseminate information about citizens of the United States, including any unconstitutional, illegal, or unethical activities committed against citizens of the United States;

(D) the laws, programs, and activities of the Executive Branch as they relate to the collection of information on citizens of the United States and the sources and methods used for the collection of information on citizens of the United States;

(E) any other issues related to the violation of the civil liberties of citizens of the United States; and

(F) any other matter relating to information collected pursuant to the investigation conducted under this paragraph at any time during the One Hundred Eighteenth Congress.

Nothing to see here right?  I mean the federal government SHOULD be investigated vigorously right? Isn’t that Congress’s responsibility?

Sure it is, which is why the House already has an Oversight & Governmental Affairs, along with a Judiciary Committee, and Armed Services Committee and and Intelligence Committee.  Apparently those bodies are not enough for the Freedom Caucus, and Kevin McCarthy having handed the last of his spine to them to get his coveted Blonde Gavel, here we are.

Item A is clearly aimed at the investigations of Donald Trump, as well as the criminal referrals made by the January 6th Committee. Expect a lot of fuss, a lot of fighting, some court actions, and then nothing.  Much like the Republicans Benghazi Select Committees, there isn’t really any there there, other then an Attorney General doing his job – albeit slowly.  Likewise this item will be used to go after the FBI and DoJ regarding the investigation of Hunter Biden – whom astute readers will recall had a federal grand jury empaneled against him last fall by the Attorney General. Again – expect a lot of fireworks and made for TV sound bites but little else.  Because again Merrick Garland is actually doing his job, and its slow plodding boring work.

Item B – which has yet to receive any press – is all about turning the Twitter Files into an Official Investigation (TM). If ever there was government overreach endangering the first Amendment, this will be it.  The biggest problem for Jordan’s committee is the likes of Google and Meta will be able to out-lawyer and out-spend his committee if they so choose.  Twitter will no doubt play along and I fully believe that Elon Musk will be medaled or knighted by Jordan for his “help” in this matter.

Items C and D seem to be a rehashing of the first two, but I believe they will be used to focus on the Parents Rights movement currently afoot, and the FBI’s alleged attempts to prevent it, interfere with it or disrupt it.  Given what we know about the FBI’s infiltration of civil rights groups and other left leaning organizations over the decades, I think Jordan and his committee would do well to let this bipartisanship within the FBI lie low.

Given the lackluster success of the Benghazi investigations, the ongoing trials for January 6th conspirators, and the limited success Democrats had enforcing subpoenas and contempt citations in the last Congress, one has to wonder what Jordan and his ilk think they will accomplish.  They won’t derail the investigations of Donald Trump – several of which at the state level are just as damning as at the federal level. They won’t burnish the GOP’s bona fides as supporters of law enforcement or law and order. They won’t create many if any criminal referrals.  And they won’t convince anyone but the already convinced that there’s anything wrong with the government.

But they will allow Jim Jordan to distract from his own unethical and possibly illegal conduct at Ohio State.  It will muddy the indictment waters for Trump.  And it will show old white men “Fighting” in a way that resonates with other old white men who are afraid of the New World Order.