Comer Brushes Off WH Celebration About Oversight Committee, But Still Has a Talk With Greene, Boebert, and Gosar

James Comer (R-KY), the chair of the House Oversight Committee, is playing down reports that the Joe Biden White House was celebrating the fact that the committee was “stacked” with hardcore MAGA supporters. The  Washington Examiner noted that the appointments of Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Paul Gosar of Arizona elicited a comment from White House spokesman Ian Sams:

Chairman [James] Comer once said his goal was to ensure the committee’s work is ‘credible,’ yet Republicans are handing the keys of Oversight to the most extreme MAGA members of the Republican caucus who promote violent rhetoric and dangerous conspiracy theories.

Comer did not take the bait but did say that he has talked with the trio and impressed upon them the seriousness of their positions. Comer told the Examiner, “They’re all passionate about oversight. And I’ve spoken with them, and I said: ‘We’ll probe and investigate lots of things, but nothing’s going on Oversight stationary unless there’s evidence to back it up…We need to make sure that anything that we put on Oversight stationery, anything that we rise to a level of a committee hearing, that we have ample evidence.'” Comer’s investigation into the Biden family began before Greene, Boebert, and Gosar received their appointments.

Comer is wise to appreciate the energy of Oversight’s newest members, while at the same time telling them to keep it in low gear. As the Examiner pointed out, Gosar was a member of the committee before Nancy Pelosi removed him in November 2021. Gosar had posted an animated video of him killing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Greene lost her slots on the Education and Budget committees over social media posts that endorsed violence against Democrats and espoused conspiracy theories about mass shootings in schools. And Greene seized some of the spotlight during the State of the Union address, first by carrying a white balloon around the Cannon Building prior to the event:

Greene made some excellent points, but the prop managed to take the gravitas out of the situation. Then there was the coat, which some have compared to something that would have been worn by Cruella de Vil. Personally, it made me think of the White Witch of Narnia, but that’s just me. Yes, those things did get attention, but hopefully we won’t see a rise in vaselined doorknobs and saran-wrapped toilets in the Capitol bathrooms. There is a not-so-fine line between making a point and staging a stunt. Remember, no calling up Pelosi if her refrigerator is running. (Although I am sure it is; after all, she has $40/gallon ice cream in the freezer drawer.)

And then Kevin McCarthy had to essentially “shush” Greene and others multiple times during the speech, despite the fact that he had told CNN, “We’re members of Congress. We have a code of ethics of how we should portray ourselves — that’s exactly what we’ll do. We’re not going to be doing childish games, tearing up a speech.” McCarthy later said that Biden had been trying to goad Republicans throughout the speech. And he has a point. Biden did not present the image of a man who has the slightest idea what country he thinks he is the president of. His speechwriters must have used a knock-off version of ChatGPT to draft it. And he was mean-spirited, in addition to his usual cluelessness. If Salvador Dali had painted a State of the Union address, it would have looked exactly like what we saw on Tuesday.

Related: AOC Is Under Investigation by the House Committee on Ethics

Comer also pointed out that the Oversight Committee has members of the Squad in its ranks: Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and Cori Bush. All of them have been vocal about their opinions, at times entertaining and frightening.  In the case of AOC, sometimes all three simultaneously. But Republicans do not enjoy the media high ground and still have to contend with the pack of feral journalists in the mainstream media who loathe them and will try to get the public to do the same. Like it or not, this is the sand litterbox we have to play in for the present.