It Was Known As “HUAC”

The House subcommittee on rightwing confirmation bias is now in session. https://t.co/uyMoBkhjKN

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) January 25, 2023

It operated from 1938 to 1975 (although its ancestry dates to 1918). It became a permanent committee in 1945. It was formed to investigate creeping Bolshevism in 1918, and spent most of its existence worrying about communism. That concern culminated in the Hollywood black list and, separately, the investigation of Alger Hiss.  But by the ‘60’s it was no longer as powerful as it had been in the ‘50’s.  Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman redeemed themselves by mocking the Committee, rather than respecting it or fearing it, in their joint and several appearances before it. Nothing deflates a bully like mockery. Being a committee created by law, it tottered on until 1975, when it was finally folded into the Judiciary Committee.

And if you think our House clowns are uniquely clownish (or dangerous):

It was during this investigation [in 1938, of the Federal Theater Project, which was overrun with commies , ya know]that one of the committee members, Joe Starnes (D-Ala.), famously asked Flanagan whether the English Elizabethan era playwright Christopher Marlowe was a member of the Communist Party, and mused that ancient Greek tragedian "Mr. Euripides" preached class warfare.

Oh, that’s hardly the only time:

In 1946, the committee considered opening investigations into the Ku Klux Klan, but decided against doing so, prompting white supremacist committee member John E. Rankin (D-Miss.) to remark, "After all, the KKK is an old American institution."

So is the U.S. House of Representatives.

I don’t think the House Committee on Weaponization is going to run for 37 years (or longer than 2), or become a permanent committee (HUAC only became one because Congress passed the law that Truman signed. Truman was never going to be suspected of being “pro-communist). I don’t see Biden signing such a law. Or the committee lasting long enough to get a Republican president to sign it.

2 years of pretend government that already won’t face the risk of a government default. This could be fun after all.