October 12, 2015 02:08 PM UTC

Mike Coffman Salutes More Planned Parenthood "Committees"

• 6 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

If a tree falls in the forest, and nobody is around to hear it, does it still make a noise? If you can answer that question, maybe you can solve this one as well: How many special/select committees can Congress create to investigate the same subject?

As ThinkProgress reported last week:

House Republicans have created a new committee specifically tasked with investigating the women’s health organization, despite the fact that months of scrutiny have failed to turn up any evidence that the group is actually breaking any laws.

The special committee formed on Wednesday brings the total count of congressional committees investigating Planned Parenthood up to five. There are already three in the House and one in the Senate…

…Republican lawmakers say the special committee will help consolidate the ongoing probe into Planned Parenthood under one legislative body. Though they acknowledge that they cannot definitively say the national women health’s organization has violated the law, they argue that doesn’t eliminate the need for further inquiry into fetal tissue research — a scientific practice that has come under fire following the release of several inflammatory videos accusing Planned Parenthood of illegally profiting from the sale of aborted baby parts.

As we noted on Friday, one of these “PP Committees” ended up producing very little aside from rhetorical nonsense; Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, admitted that his Committee’s investigation turned up, well, nothing.

“Did we find any wrongdoing? The answer was no,” Chaffetz said.

Nothing? Oh. Well, good thing there are still four PP Committees that are still investigating. Last week the House voted to establish a Select Investigative Panel of the Committee on Energy and Commerce to look into the nonsense allegations against Planned Parenthood. Plenty of Republicans voted in favor of creating this committee, including Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora)…who used Planned Parenthood’s logo to imply an endorsement of his campaign in 2014.

You may recall from a few weeks ago that Coffman also voted in favor of cutting federal funding from Planned Parenthood, even with the knowledge that such a vote could derail negotiations hoping to avoid a government shutdown for the second time in three years. The explanation for that vote and the contrasting use of the Planned Parenthood logo for his campaign led to this classic response:

“Using Planned Parenthood’s expression of support is not the same thing as saying it’s a good organization,” said Coffman’s spokeswoman Cinamon Watson in an email to 9NEWS.

Republicans in Colorado have been trying hard to stoke the flames of manufactured anger over Planned Parenthood, and Rep. Coffman has happily joined in at every step — nevermind his 2014 campaign claims. But after Rep. Chaffetz’s frank comments that his Planned Parenthood investigation turned up nada, how can Coffman and other Congressional Republicans continue to promote more investigations? If another committee does try to push some sort of “evidence” involving Planned Parenthood, the first casualty will be the Republican members of Rep. Chaffetz’s committee; they’re going to look pretty incompetent if another committee claims evidence of wrongdoing after they reluctantly admitted running into a dead end.

But…if all five of these Committees fail to produce anything meaningful, will Coffman support the creation of a new Committee to investigate those other Committees? It only seems fair.