Partisan contempt of Congress citations intensify public contempt for Congress

“You say you want retribution,” the Beatles might have sung. Instead, they said “revolution.”

In Congress, they’re the same thing: What goes around comes around. Congress and the President Trump have both become adept at finding new ways to do unto others as they have had done unto them.

In the last few years, Congress and presidents have become more punitively partisan. When majority control of either branch changes, the new majority party tends to focus its energy on going after the opposition rather than on forging better public policy.

This may account for the paucity of new legislative initiatives to address national problems. It may also account for the marked increase in partisan investigations on Capitol Hill as well as presidentially directed prosecutions of its former critics.

This is not a new phenomenon. The old saw, “Don’t get mad, get even,” has been around for most of our history. But the expanded use of political recrimination and retribution is worrisome.

One area where it is clearly expanding is in congressional investigations. Although majority-controlled committees in Congress have always used their oversight powers to investigate the past policies and stewardship of their opposition party predecessors, today’s inquiries are both more personal and more punitive in nature. Some have referred to this development as the weaponization of politics, aimed more at exacting revenge and engaging in partisan one-upmanship for electoral gain.

At least in Congress, unlike in the executive, there are certain rules and practices........

© The Hill