Jan 17, 2011 4 min read

Well, the 112th U.S. Congress is in full session. It doesn’t get any better than this.

NOTE: I’ve learned over the years that a little sarcasm can go a long way. And that a lot of sarcasm can go even further. The previous paragraph was about as sarcastic as I could get.

In reality, the only thing worse than Republicans taking control of one house of Congress, would be a dentist who discovers I have 20 impacted teeth.

Here’s the Republican agenda in one sentence. To undo everything Barack Obama did during his first two years in office.

That’s it. They’ll start later this week with a bill to repeal health care reform. Now there’s a good old waste of time.

That bill will certainly clear the Republican-controlled House, but there’s little chance it will pass in the Democratically controlled Senate. If, through some quirk, it does pass – the president will await with his veto pen in hand.

So all of that bluster about dismantling “Obamacare” will result in nothing more than time spent trying to do something Republicans knew they couldn’t do in the first place.

So the “Party of No” will soon become the “Party of No Time Spent on the Real Issues of the Day,” right off the bat. Oh, I feel a new wave of sarcasm coming on.

Let’s hear it for those Republicans!

There is something we’ll have to take into consideration over the next few months. They call if the Tea Party.

There are 43 new Tea Party-backed members in the U.S. House. That’s 43 people who’ll soon discover that making bold pledges about getting rid of all of this government isn’t as easy as it sounded when they campaigned.

There are those people we call Democrats who’ll stand between them and their exotic notions about the functions of the “Constitution.”

I can’t wait until Republicans try to make good on their promise to “investigate” the actions of the Obama administration.

U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Ca) appeared on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show a few days ago, and he proclaimed Obama as “one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times.” Issa is planning to prove that, with a basket full of investigations he’ll mount as the chairman of the House’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

After he’d thought it over, though, he backed away from his highly questionable claim that the president is “corrupt.” He admitted he’d gotten a little carried away. What he claims he meant to say is that Obama is presiding over “one of the most corrupt administrations.”

It’s still a ridiculous claim that Issa is sure to take up precious legislative time trying to prove.

And while on the subject of Issa and the word “corrupt,” perhaps it’s worthy of note that it was Issa who, himself, has had two serious brushes with law.

In 1980, Issa and his brother were prosecuted for faking the theft of Issa’s Mercedes Benz, after he’d sold it for $16,000. That case was later dismissed.

He and his brother were also indicted on a charge of felony grand theft of a car from a dealership in Cleveland. That case, too, was dropped.

So Issa seems to know “corruption” when he sees it. And sometimes, it’s been alleged he’s seen it in his own mirror.

Then there’s that new Weeper, er, I mean Speaker of the House John Boehner. He’s already said that, despite the prospect of renewed and costly legislative slowdowns, he won’t “compromise” on his “principles.”

He’s already proven that. Even when that widely supported bill (which is now a law) to help 9/11 first responders was voted on in the house, Boehner’s “principles” wouldn’t allow him to vote for it.

So now all of the Republican pieces are in place. The Tea Party has a seat at the table.The investigations are sure to fly.

And the Speaker’s chair will be soaked in elephant tears.

I say this without the least bit of sarcasm – I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net

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