EBOLA OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE FARSE

Last Fridays meeting of the +Oversight and Government Reform Committee chaired by Darrell Edward Issa, who is the Republican U.S. Representative for California's 49th congressional district, should stand as one of the most if not the most egregious example of failed government in our nation’s congressional history. It was grounded in total ignorance. Unlike most of my peers, I enjoy watching congressional hearings more than I like watching sports events meaning I have watched many hearings down through the years. +Darrell Issa is a well-know and often despised on both sides of the aisles for his extreme partisanship. In previous hearings, he conducted committee business as a dictator; he made news by openly refusing to allow members of the Democratic Party to speak; thus, eschewing the normal “democratic” ways of conducting business. However, his “no compromise” conduct of committee business is typical of Republican committee chairs although we as liberals may not accept it we expect it. Yesterday, Issa outdid himself in addition, he and his fellow Republicans committee members displayed unbelievable ignorance of the issue at hand, which was the Government handling of the Ebola epidemic in Africa. Issa even distorted the purpose of the hearing. Childlike, Issa stumbled and bumbled over the name of the disease and the country involved. He referred to Ebola as “ecoli” and then as “Eboli” as found in “Guyana” and not “Guinea”. Of course, the name of the disease is Ebola; we see and hear the name repeatedly, in every news media outlet; thus, for the chair of a committee with the awesome responsibility for government over site of that specific topic not to know that name is inexcusable. In addition, not to know that +Guyana is in South America and +Guinea is a country in Africa demonstrates extreme carelessness, which is reminiscent of +Sarah Palin referring to people who come “from Ebola” as if the name of the disease was a country or referring to +Africa as if it were a country and not a continent.

The issue that took center stage at the hearing in question was President Obama’s timely appointment of and experienced government manager. Typical of the Republican mindset is to call for the naming of a “czar”, specifically using that term, and then criticize the president for appointing someone to oversee the Administration’s response to Ebola by saying he was appointing a czar dictator. The public outcry over the disease has been greatly exaggerated by the right wing press and talk radio. Issa was trying desperately to take advantage of this in terms of his being in front of cameras. In addition, he wanted to justify the hearing by proclaiming that there were government missteps at the level of the president of the Untied States in handling the treatment of +Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas when there was clearly an understandable mishandling his case by a nurse and physician in a local hospital.

As the involved physicians in that hospital said, medical schools train them in to look for horses and not zebras when they hear hoof beats. Hindsight is and will always be 20/20. The committee’s objective was not oversight, but was to ridicule government efforts for publicity purposes and have the committee serve as a “pseudo” grand jury to indict someone for something. The chair and his fellow Republican committee members made this evident in course of the hearing. Early in the hearing, Issa said:

"Sadly, in my opinion, (+Klain's appointment) shows the administration has on one hand recognized the missteps (in handling the Ebola crisis), and on the other hand is not prepared to put a known leader in charge or, in fact, a medical professional in charge,"

Everyone involved, including the media knew that the President was following the advice of multiple experts in infectious diseases and in epidemiology. These expert range from those in the CDC and in charge of state and worldwide health organizations including the World Health Organization and MSF (acronym for French rendition of the name Doctors without Boarders) who where on site in +West Africa. All the actions of the president, hence the government was based on medical experts, who are readily available to President. This fact alone should make the +Issa hearings a farce; the Congress and state politicians refuse to believe the medical experts yet he has the temerity to question why the president did not “name a medical professional’ to be in charge. Like climate change deniers, the Ebola crisis is clearly another instance of “science denying” for political gain. Hot head committee member +Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., summed up these feelings when he asked why Obama had to appoint a "dadgum lawyer" rather than a doctor to be the Ebola czar. In addition, he tried to use the cheap trick of playing off jelousy by asking +Nicole Lurie, a physician and assistant secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, why Obama didn't pick her instead.

However, their denying of experts didn’t stop there. They even deny what +Maj. Gen. James Lariviere, deputy director of political-military affairs in Africa for the Defense Department told them about how the military are protecting our troops in west Africa. The justification for the question was +Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., who said, using words intended to induce panic, military families are worried that soldiers face a "potential death sentence being sent in to combat a virus."

Sadly, the objective of this Republican committee, like all Republicans in congress, was the same old thing, which is to continue to undermine government function at any cost. This phenomenon of denying science by Republican lawmakers has become so common in modern Washington that the saying, “I am not a scientist” is common political parlance. I was shock at the crudeness of hearing one committee member embarrass himself by openly and illogically calling a medical expert a lair for saying you cannot get Ebola on public transportation from someone who is not showing symptoms. He emphasized his point by saying you could get could get Ebola “on a bus if someone vomited in your lap on a bus”.

When the voters elect a Republican, they assume the wisdom of all those who elected him or her. Much in the same manner as Republicans have a propensity to run committees as dictators, they also seem to believe that once people elect them that make the professionals who do not have to consult anyone: physicians, climatologists, generals, or whatever. Not only that they ridicule those who do consult experts, such as our current President. 

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