Few members of the United States Congress are willing to risk their careers to state the truth to the American people. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota is one, but unfortunately she has announced she is calling it quits after four terms in the House.
In the ten years I’ve known him, Iowa’s Steve King has never shied away from the truth for the sake of political correctness.
Texas Congressman Joe Barton had the courage to call Barack Obama’s extortion of $20 billion from oil giant BP after the Gulf oil spill exactly what it was - a shakedown. Sadly, the GOP “leadership” slapped him down for it, threatening to strip him of his committee position if he didn’t apologize.
Rep. Joe Wilson told the world the truth, albeit somewhat crassly, when he called out “You lie!” to Obama during the State of the Union speech.
South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy (who should give serious consideration to challenging RINO Lindsay Graham for his senate seat) lit up the Twitter universe after telling IRS official Lois Lerner that she had waived her right to plead the 5th Amendment by making an opening statement before the House Judiciary Committee. This is just one of many bold acts that have made Gowdy a hero to freedom-loving Americans.
But few congressional statesmen in our time have emerged to so utterly speak truth to power - the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth - as did U.S. Rep. Jim Brindenstine, a courageous Republican from Oklahoma who, in a little more than a minute on the floor of the House, summed up the corruption and lawlessness of the President of the United States.
Here is the text of Rep. Brindenstine’s remarks:
“The president’s Justice Department sold weapons to narco-terrorists south of our border, who killed one of our finest. The president’s State Department lied about Benghazi with false information provided by the White House. The president’s attorney general authorized spying on a Fox News reporter and his family for reporting on a North Korean nuclear test. The president’s Justice Department confiscated phone records of the Associated Press because they reported on a thwarted terrorist attack. The president’s Treasury Department uses the IRS to target political opposition. The president’s Health and Human Services secretary pressures insurance companies she is supposed to regulate to promote ‘Obamacare,’ which is the same law she uses to force citizens to pay for abortion-inducing drugs against their religious liberties. The president’s dishonesty, incompetence, vengefulness and lack of moral compass lead many to suggest that he is not fit to lead. The only problem is that his vice president is equally unfit and even more embarrassing.”
Of course, since Brindenstine calmly delivered these blistering words on the House floor, more scandals have emerged from the most scandal-ridden administration in history. For example, we are learning that communications giant Verizon handed over to Obama’s NSA the phone records on as many as 100 million Americans, allegedly to fight terrorism.
We learned during House Judiciary Committee hearings that the IRS deliberately leaked the names and addresses of the donors to a pro-marriage group in order to help the fanatical leftist bullies in the gay mafia (otherwise known as the Human Rights Campaign) harass their political enemies. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (even Bill O’Reilly figured it out) to deduce that the Obama administration now has the goods on every member of Congress (or anyone else they would like to blackmail) who uses Verizon cell phone service. Do you believe they would hesitate to use such information?
Meanwhile, Attorney General Eric Holder defiantly announced that he has no intention of resigning. And why should he? He and his boss, Barack Obama, have spent the last four and a half years making the Congress of the United States largely irrelevant. And other than the handful of House members already mentioned - and perhaps a few senators like Ted Cruz - it is hard to imagine anyone in the congressional leadership who is willing to take the steps necessary to reclaim the constitutional authority they have allowed Obama to steal from them.
Doug Patton describes himself as a recovering political speechwriter who agrees with himself more often than not. His weekly columns are syndicated by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Readers are encouraged to email him at dpatton@cagle.com and/or to follow him on Twitter at @Doug_Patton.