Commentary

I recently wrote of a new talking point emanating from the left in which the new House majority would be accused of spending all of its time on investigations.

One involving Hunter Biden and his White House access-peddling and another seeking the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his failure to secure our southern border. 

There may be others, but they will be focused on the necessity for accountability. Something that has been noticeably missing during the first two years of the Biden administration.

I was concerned with the subhead of the Washington Examiner magazine’s  feature cover story on December 6, 2022 – “GOP should focus on governing, not endless investigations” – under “Do the Right Thing.”

I wondered, has the normally right-thinking Examiner fallen for the left’s talking point?  Despite the subhead, not quite. However, its politics editor W. James Antle III, writing for the editors, suggests the “Republicans have an opportunity and shouldn’t waste it.  If Republicans plunge into two years of retributive investigations, they will lose.”

While citing “discouraging indications that the GOP House majority is going to spend much of its time investigating Democrats, Antle believes that “the GOP should certainly not abandon its oversight responsibilities.  He worries that they will fail with voters if they concentrate on them to the exclusion of policymaking and presenting itself as a party fit for government.

At a recent White House press conference, Karine Jean- Pierre, reading from her binder notes, of course, accused Republicans of ignoring what they said they were going to do, fighting inflation as their top priority.  “Instead of focusing on American families, they’re focusing on the president’s family.”

A couple months ago, when her boss was asked about his top domestic issue being inflation or abortion, he responded with, “They’re all important.  We ought to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.”

In 2021, when Senate Democrats were working on plans to impeach Donald Trump, even Colorado’s feckless Sen. Michael Bennet, talked about walking and chewing gum at the same time as the Biden administration began its busy transition to the presidency.

Democrats claim that only they are able to walk and chew gum at the same time, yet they are unable to restore our energy independence, the security of our southern border, or altering climate change while launching a costly, televised partisan investigation of the January 6 Capitol riot.

I’m betting that we can show the left a thing or two about governing.

As a subscriber to the Washington Examiner, I was impressed when it launched its “Restoring America” campaign at a time when renewing American optimism was a worthy goal.  In the year that followed, the Examiner’s list of outstanding journalists and columnists have provided readers with objective commentary.

I hope that its editor, Hugo Gurdon, meant what he said when he wrote then that “a society must be engaged in a negotiation between past and future.”  I interpret that to mean that investigations to determine accountability – the past – can take place while pledging to tackle inflation through spending cuts – the future. Thus, walking and chewing gum at the same time.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.