Did you know there is a House committee that is required, by law, to investigate the Executive Branch ? We are thinking Obama didn't know this.

Darrell Issa is a congressman from Southern California. He is a no-nonsense Establishment Republican who leans hard to a sensible conservative position. In his case, "Establishment" is good and for this reason: Darrell Issa is not new to Washington. He understands solutions and how to get there. That knowledge will serve him well beginning January 5th - this coming Wednesday.

He will be the new Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Understand that this committee is in charge of the oversight of the executive branch [that's the president, folks] in Congress. Its primary function is the probing of the financial habits of the executive branch and the processes used by the presidential office in accomplishing his agenda, especially as this is applied to the use of government funds.* In addition to its investigative relationship to the executive branch, Issa and his committee are in charge of the conduct of the federal civil service. All of this is defined in Title 5 of the United States Code. **

As relates to the actual and prescribed function of this committee, Issa had this to say: "It's more of an accounting function than legal function. It's more about the inspector generals than it is about lawyers in the White House. And the sooner the administration figures out that the enemy is the bureaucracy and the wasteful spending, not the other party, the better off we'll be."

It is our opinion that this committee will play a central role in the politics of the 112th congress. Mr. Obama has made it clear that he intends to accomplish more in the next two years than he did in the previous two years by using the regulatory powers of the various agencies under his purview. In other words, Obama intends to circumvent congress as much as possible and rule as a dictator of sorts.

We have a president, for the first time in modern history, who demonstrates no respect for Constitutional processes and has little regard for the need to be bipartisan. There has never been a time when the services of this committee are more important. Understand that the coming investigations are the functionary responsibilities of this House Oversight Committee as defined by law. It is not the function of a partisan GOP congress, although you will hear nothing but this accusation for the next two years. We are saying that Darrell Issa's job is investigating the executive branch of government. It is his job. During the past two years, this committee accomplished virtually nothing. That is about to change.

We leave you with this Issa quote: "The sooner the administration figures out that the enemy is the bureaucracy and the wasteful spending, not the other party, the better off we'll be," Issa on "Fox News Sunday."

End Notes:
1. *Washington Post: its definition of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
2. **There are currently 50 "titles" in the United States Code. The Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives revises this document every six years. The last revision was completed in 2006.
3. See Wikipedia and its discussion of "civil service."
4. See Issa'a bio here. He has been in congress since 2001.