Andrew McCarthy in Op-Ed Calls Pelosi’s Coronavirus '9/11 Commission' a political boondoggle

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has created a special committee to oversee the Trump administration’s coronavirus response. Does it show every sign of being an adjunct of the Joe Biden presidential campaign and a leftwing political crusade? Of course it does.

After all, Pelosi placed in charge none other than Rep. James Clyburn, the senior South Carolina Democrat credited with single-handedly saving the Biden campaign when it seemed to be keeling over before the Palmetto State’s primary.

That would be the same James Clyburn who notoriously gushed that the coronavirus pandemic and the oceans of funding the federal government is pouring into our careening economy, presented “a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.”

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All that said, though, Pelosi’s gambit illustrates that there is no good reason for Republicans to sign on to an even higher-profile boondoggle: a “9/11 Commission” for the coronavirus.

Pelosi has placed the design of this extravaganza in the capably partisan hands of Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D., Calif. Democrats see it as a cross between a jump-start for the moribund Biden campaign and stealth Impeachment 2.0.

Understand: Elections have consequences. The Democrats won the House in 2018, and to the victor goes the spoils. That means all the committee chairs, the authority to form new committees and the subpoena power that comes with them. They have every right to conduct oversight, even if that power can be (and is apt to be) abused.

Do we really think Congress is up to impeaching a president, and up to enacting emergency disaster legislation but needs a 9/11 Commission-style panel to investigate whether President Trump and his subordinates bungled COVID-19?

And there must inevitably be congressional oversight of the executive branch’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. That includes oversight of the Trump administration’s management of the $2 trillion (and counting) relief package that is, by leaps and bounds, the priciest legislation in the history of the United States.

If the Republicans had control of the House, they too would be examining the administration’s performance; the way this game is played, such GOP scrutiny would be especially exacting if the White House were in Democratic hands.

But the point is that, in our system, it is Congress – the representatives politically accountable to voters – that is supposed to conduct oversight of the executive branch.

It is Congress that is supposed to convene hearings, grill executive officials, address abuses or incompetence and prescribe legislative fixes when they are needed.

Those weighty constitutional responsibilities are not supposed to be... (Read more)

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