It was more than clear when House Republicans scheduled their first hearing on Planned Parenthood that they've already decided the organization is guilty of crimes to be determined, but judging by the way some members tell it, whether or not Planned Parenthood broke the law is irrelevant.
“The issue is not whether there’s been a crime committed or not,” Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas.) told the same group at the hearing. “This issue is whether or not taxpayers should fund Planned Parenthood. That’s the issue before this committee.”
It isn't?
“I don’t know whether we’re ever going to be able to answer that question, whether it was illegal for them to do what they were doing,” Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) said during the House’s first hearing on the topic Wednesday. "I don’t know if it was illegal … but it was immoral, what was seen on that video."
Of course they will not be able to answer a question which they are not asking. As representative Ted Poe says, whether or not a crime has been committed is 'not the issue.'
I had assumed no Planned Parenthood staff or officials were invited to the first hearing on the matter because they may provide answers the committee doesn't want to hear but, in hindsight, it appears they weren't invited because House Republicans have no questions.
House Republicans have no questions because they aren't actually investigating anything.
It's not that they've already determined the results of their investigation before completing it; it's that there is no investigation. They've already moved on to sentencing. The first hearing and any further hearings they hold on the matter are not to gauge whether or not Planned Parenthood is guilty. They don't care if the organization operated entirely within the law.
Given that there's no way the organization will be defunded while President Obama remains in office, one might ask what the hell the point of all this is. What will more hearings tell them that they don't already think they know?
They may have already decided Planned Parenthood is guilty, but it doesn't matter. There's nothing they can do about it. Any further action on their part will be purely masturbatory.
I thought we had seen all congressional Republicans had to show us with the Neverending Story of Benghazi, but at least the various committees that have investigated Benghazi conducted interviews with witnesses and government officials.
The "investigation" of Planned Parenthood is an utter farce. There is no due process in this courtroom. They have no discernible ethics. It's Doctor Crane offering the guilty a choice between death or exile, both of which result in death.
"This is merely a sentencing hearing."