National Review Online endorses Jason Chaffetz as the best man to lead the powerful House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform.
From the NRO editorial:
In the amount of time he devotes to the committee, Chaffetz has no equal, except perhaps Issa himself. Chaffetz’s competitors for the position — Mike Turner of Ohio and John Mica of Florida — have chosen to allocate much of their time elsewhere: to the Armed Services Committee, in Turner’s case, and in Mica’s to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, which he chaired from 2011 to 2013. No doubt both would be capable leaders, but the Oversight Committee demands special attention.
Since it is the House body responsible for holding the federal bureaucracy in check, the duties of the Committee on Oversight require vigorous prosecution, especially under this law-stretching president. For that purpose, the chairman is granted the authority to unilaterally issue subpoenas, giving him unique power to compel testimony from government officials. Although that power as exercised by Issa has been regularly assailed by Democrats, the tendency of administration officials to keep tight-lipped despite obvious wrongdoing (e.g. Lois Lerner) and of Democrats to scoff at any investigation into this administration means that the next chairman must be willing to leverage the powers of the position fearlessly but judiciously.
We believe Chaffetz has the right judgment for striking this balance. He is a regular guest on radio and television, including the major Sunday-morning shows, and he has reliably made his arguments, not himself, the issue.
