Truthiness Rises Again

“If you believe it, it’s not a lie”, or a variation on that theme, seems to be the foundation the Republicans are functioning from these days.  As a result, they can say anything they want to, anytime, anywhere for any reason whatsoever.  What a freeing feeling that must be!  Never having to look up and verify the source of your statements.  Just think of all the time one can save by not having to verify.

I wrote a blog about this sort of thing in October of last year, True Facts vs Truthiness, because it was already beginning to be such a problem that Stephen Colbert created the term, truthiness, to cover it.  Truthiness as a word is pretty funny, one has to admit, but the cause for the need for such a term is not.

This past month or so Darryl Issa, (R) unfortunately from California, Chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been conducting hearings on the “Fast and Furious” program to “walk” rather than run guns into Mexico to the drug cartels there to trace the guns directly to crimes.  Apparently the program was talked about but never implemented, but was described as a fait accompli by a so-called whistle blower.  One person said it was a fact.  Seven DOJ personnel disputed the fact.  But Issa chose to go with the one, because the truthiness of the one corresponded with what he wanted to believe, while the testimony of the seven did not.  Thus, since he believed it, it was not a lie.

During the Committee hearings, Issa refused to call any witnesses that might not corroborate what he wanted to believe.  Then he insisted that Eric Holder was withholding information from a Congressional committee, and the Republicans on the committee voted to hold Holder in Contempt of Congress, even though President Obama had issued an Executive Order preventing the release.  By law, the documents Issa could not be released because they were the subject of an ongoing investigation, but never let a little matter like that get in the way.

So yesterday the Republicans, and some Democrats who could not stand up to the National Rifle Association threats, voted to hold the Attorney General of the United States in Contempt of Congress for upholding the law!!

Does anyone else out there feel like he/she has fallen down a rabbit hole?  Only instead of the Red Queen threatening to cut off everyone’s head, we have a bunch of whackadoodle Republicans saying anything they want to, because if they believe it, it must be true.