Associated Press
Chairman Issa isn't exactly fair and balanced.
Republican efforts to combat contraception access have failed rather spectacularly. After a pointless culture-war fight, the American mainstream -- including Roman Catholics and self-identified Republican voters -- agrees that the GOP is wrong and the Obama administration is right.
The smart move for congressional Republicans would be to simply move on to other issues, since the GOP probably can't force a legislative change anyway. As Sarah Posner reported, that's not, however, what's happening on Capitol Hill today.
Republican Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, will convene a hearing [Thursday], "Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?"
The lead witness is the Most Rev. William E. Lori, Roman Catholic bishop of Bridgeport, Conn., and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty. Judging from Lori and the rest of the witness list, it's obvious that Issa has posed what he considers to be a rhetorical question and lined up nine like-minded rhetoricians to answer it anyway.
The ostensible point of a congressional hearing is to provide lawmakers with information they need to shape public policy. In this case, Issa has invited nine "expert" witnesses to discuss contraception coverage -- and all nine are men who represent religious institutions.
How many of the witnesses will offer testimony in support of the administration's position? According to Democrats, zero. How many can speak to issues regarding contraception and/or preventive health care? Again, zero. Issa invited nine people to testify, and each of them will tell Issa exactly what he wants to hear.
Dems were initially offered a chance to have one witness testify, but when they selected a female law student at Georgetown, Republican committee staffers rejected the choice, arguing that she would only be able to speak to issues regarding contraception access -- and this was a hearing about religious liberty.
Remember, there are no church-state lines being crossed with the White House policy. Churches and other houses of worship are exempt, and a compromise measure ensures that religiously-affiliated employers won't have to pay for contraception coverage, either.
But don't expect to hear these details at today's committee hearing.
Update: In the 11th hour, Republicans changed the witness list and included two women who were not originally going to be part of the hearing. They were, however, part of the second panel -- the original, five-person panel were all men -- and of the 10 GOP witnesses who participated today, none were health care or contraception advocates.
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In addition to Issa, Committee Majority Staff should also be blamed. Hearings are how Staff gets to look & act important and meaningful (Commercial TV! C-SPAN! Print Media! Commntators from the Left and the Right Take Notice! Fame!)-- even hearings that are dogsqueeze.
What I want to know is does Issa have an acutally womb and "he" really a women pretending to be a man a la Victor/Victoria, or is it just wishful thinking on his part?
and apparently a vagina too...
Theocracy 101 or tear down that wall(of separation)
I see a revolution in the works.Nahh America will simply slide into a teocratic Iranian type of Government with barely a whimper.
In other news, the House Chaplain has invited nine atheists to defend the existence of "God".
Thank you! I had the sniffles but that spray of coffee through my sinuses cleared everything up.
Will someone represent Judaism? How about Reformed Judaism? How about Islam? Or, are the Roman Catholic bishops the only "religion in town?"
Sure man just as soon as the Jews convert to evangelistic Christianity. We owe you something for stealing your Messiah and claiming him to be our savior.
I have a feeling religion is going to be the downfall of our society...it makes me sad...
“Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it
is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by
law”
Thomas
Paine quote
Issa is nothing but a grand stander. He claims this hearing is not about women's health issues and stacks the deck by calling an all-male panel of "experts" who agree with his right-wing view. He refused to allow a female Georgetown student testify because she opposes his view. This hearing, like a lot of what Issa does, is simply designed to get him media attention. It's a total sham.
So you are saying he is a true republican?
Good point MuggleBorn. Why are there never any females on any of these Committees?
Maybe Republican woman are smarter than their male counterparts.....wait...Michelle Bachman, Sarah Palin, Nicky Haley.....NEVERMIND!!
The hearing is also a waste of taxpayers money.
Issa is one of most corrupt members of congress. Of course, he's put in charge of 'oversight and reform'.
Well, under the circumstances wouldn't you do the same?
If you give a dog enough rope, he'll hang himself.
I would be super-impressed if you could show me a noose-tying dog.
And what, pray tell, do 9 men of religion know about female reproduction?
What hubris, to think they have ANY right to tell women what they can or cannot do with their bodies.
Every time I see the word 'hubris' I think, 'debris' and picture flotsam and jetsam.
Not too far off, methinks.
Issa is a asshat!
Another definition of what issa is?
Wondering when Rep Issa will be going to prison?
Issa obviously needs a hobby. Or desperately needs to retire. Shows why we should have mandatory retirement age in the US Congress.
But Strom served so well for so long.I would argue he served best at his eldest since he slept through the whole day.
Age and term limits - 2, same as the president. This would result in actual legislating and less entrenched lobbying. As much as I like my rep. it's worth a try. It was intended (for those Scalia fans ) to be a temporary job.
While they are at it, perhaps they could resurrect Creationism and debate it to death again!
Help! Can someone clarify for me, please?
The title of Issa's meeting ends with "...Freedom of Conscience?". I'm wondering where this actually comes from, this "freedom of conscience". When I was young the Viet Nam War was raging. There were people who conscientiously objected to the war. They still had to serve. They were assigned non-combat duty but still served in the military. (One notable exception was Cassius Clay, AKA Mohamed Ali. He went to prison instead of serving.)
Good question. Especially since the right likes to claim that since things like the "right to privacy" aren't in the Constitution, per se, then they don't exist and can therefore be trampled at will. I can understand that "freedom of Conscience" is one of those derivative, unenumerated rights. I just can't understand why the strict-interpreters-of-the-Constitution have suddenly decided to invoke it now... or why they think it applies to this brouhaha, unless, of course, you consider large employers, like corporations, people with consciences...
Fredom of conscience or freedom from.
Nice to see the rupublicians wasting our tax money on such stupid things as one sided hearings with church leaders. Trying to base policy on church leaders views desn't sound like too much of a seperation of church and state to me .
This is a bit mind boggling. It's like they secretly want Obama's approval rating to go up. Maybe the want to wait 4 more years for a Republican nominee with real potential to enter the ring?
Indeed. Some of this stuff is so completely ridiculous, I can't help but wonder if the Right is actually politically suicidal. But hey, if they want to keep this farce up clear through till Election Day, let 'em. It can only help Obama and the Democrats.
What is in the water these idiots are drinking? The government waste these days comes from all these useless hearings. How does this type of foolishness help the country, the economy, American security. It all about stalling on the real issues and attacking the President in any way possible. This is the same political party that warned America about electing a Papist in 1960, how things have changed. Now they want us to fall in line with the Vatican? Return to the all powerful Catholic church of the 13th century? What's next? Inquisition? Children's crusades? Flat earth? These guys have too much time on their hands. Clean house. It should be a part time gig with term limits, not a full time occupation.
It is a part time job. They go to Washington for 2 weeks and go home for 2 weeks. I would love to have a part time job like that and make $174,000 a year with super benefits.
As we learned this year, it really doesn't pay to have a wagonload of Freshman legislators, because they don't even know what is in our Constitution! We need a balance of newbies and oldies that can show the newbies the responsibility they are taking on and what constitutes stupid bills that will go nowhere and have no meaning.
I also think that we should terminate any form of retirement benefits for their part time jobs. They are all millionaires, why should they need retirement benefits other than Social Security like the rest of us.
Just my opinion
Actually Issa's hearing will be the best advertisement for birth control you can get. Because we can close out eyes and imagine what the world would be like if Issa's parents had used birth control and not spawned Little Issa. But all non kidding aside, Issa gets to grand stand and the taxpayer gets to pay for it.
I want a hearing called "The Necessity of Freedom FROM Religion to Ensure the United States Stops Trying to March Backwards into an Age of Intellectual Darkness"
I volunteer to chair and call witnesses.
Anyone else think that maybe Margaret Atwood was prescient?
Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's tale is definitely the blueprint for today's assault on women's reproductive freedoms.
Scheduled for Thursday? As in today? Nothing about this is showing up on the C-Span site and I'd like to watch. I love a good circus.
As of about 10 minutes after you posted, it's still streaming at: http://oversight.house.gov/index.php
Thank you!
The only reason Issa is in office is because his constituents are retired military lifers and Morons, er, I mean Mormons. The collective IQ of northern San Diego County is probably not a single-digit positive number - these are the people after all who supported raging criminal idiot and alleged "American Hero" Randy Duke Cunningham.
San Diego: nicest climate and dumbest population of California (and that's in competition with Orangatang County and Bakersfield)
"Smelly Face: The Separation of Smelly Things and Faces. Does Darrel Issa have a dirty smelly face."
With expert testimony from 9 third-grade bullies who just learned some new swear words.
This is what it sounds like to me when I read the name of stupid hearing.
Perhaps it is a slow news day and Fox News needs some sound bites!
These turds aren't going to be happy until every woman in the country is forced into a chastity belt. Unless, of course, that woman is gay, in which case she'd be forced into a prison work farm. Maybe they'd house all the gay men and gay women together in the hopes that they could "cure" some of them.
Listen, it's just pointless to keep saying this, but the radically right wing of the Republican Party doesn't care if it's out of touch. It wants to drive the bus off the cliff to prove that the oil should have been changed.
I think I understand what's going on here. Issa has a small dick. He has to pump himself up somehow. What better way that to crow and strut in Congress?
It's not about attention for Issa - it's about "framing the debate." This isn't to make Issa famous or to gain political influence (not directly at least), and it's definitely not to make legislation. It's to get people talking about whether or not the Obama administration has limited the freedom of religious institutions.
You see, as long as the Democrats have to waste time saying that it hasn't (and as long as pundits ask only that question) they won't be able to point out how the Republican position would mean a massive reduction in the viable choices for non-Catholics who work for Catholic institutions.
As long as they can keep us on defense regarding the church's freedom, we can't go on the offense regarding the individual's freedom to follow or not to follow a churches moral strictures as they see fit.
I'm venting my anger again. I need to stop doing that.
None- the- less this entire thing is a fiasco. It makes religion look bad, it makes Republicans look bad- humm maybe they are. That's why we need a government run health care system. Then we wouldn't be having this argment.
What a waste of valuable time. Wouldn't Congressman Issa spend his time more wisely addressing issues that are more important to our society; for instance finding a way to send Issa and Gingrich to the moon. I think planning for that event to happen is more important than rehashing issues in an attempt to limit the rights of your fellow citizens.