Rep Chaffetz Wants To Throw a Net Over This City

Special Agent Jason Chaffetz takes 'em down!

Judging by the enthusiasm with which he badgered the Director of the U.S. Secret Service at yesterday's Oversight Committee hearing, Representative Jason Chaffetz, the bad-ass wannabe who represents Utah's 3rd District, seems to have found a new pet project and outlet for his Walter Mitty side.

If the Secret Service keeps giving him such great material for oversight he might even forgot about his other pet project, embassy security.

Okay, so yesterday's hearing was an utter embarrassment for the Secret Service. Both sides of the Committee took turns hitting the witness hard, and the Service had it coming. But then, about two and a half hours into it, Chairman Chaffetz suddenly peeled out of formation and launched into an outburst of threats and obsolete cop jargon directed at the evidently disturbed woman who initiated this latest scandal when she dropped a package in the street in front of White House on March 4 and then drove off, escaping arrest until two days later.    

Chaffetz told the Secret Service Director how he would have handled that situation.

“I want her taken down! I want a net to go over this city! ... Take ‘em down! Take ‘em down! That’s what I want to see happen.” 

Yes, he actually said I want a net to go over this city. Where did he get that from, some old film noir hard-boiled detective movie on TCM? It's of an era with 'if that dame tries to scram outta here, I'll pull my roscoe and ventilate her! Sweat that broad under the hot lights back in the squad room and she'll open up like a cheap suitcase! And don't youse let that doll talk to her mouthpiece until she spills the beans!'

His strange rant was promptly posted on the Oversight Committee’s You-Tube channel within minutes:


That Secret Service hearing was such a great stage for histrionic politicians that Trey Gowdy temporarily dropped his Benghazi select committee investigations to do some hasty and ill-prepared questioning of his own. He even stepped on Chaffetz's toes a little, trying to horn in on Chaffetz’s prerogative as Chairman for this one.

Gowdy mostly did some pointless quibbling with the Service's Director over the relative importance of Congressional oversight versus the Service OIG's investigative interest. Amusingly, he referred to "dueling narratives.” I think that's a bad phrase for someone who speaks with such a pronounced Deliverance accent.

The entire hearing is embedded below, just in case you're a glutton for punishment.