Rep. Cliff Stearns perseveres in Planned Parenthood investigation

(If Obama ever thinks about Rep. Cliff Stearns, this is what it looks like)

Thanks to the Susan G. Komen Foundation controversy over Planned Parenthood, my favorite Congressman is back in the spotlight.

Cliff Stearns has sat in the House of Representatives for twenty-something years now without doing anything interesting. Until last year, when he launched an investigation of Planned Parenthood, calling for thousands of pages of financial and other documents (which PP has turned over willingly), because he thinks they are secretly funding abortions with the federal government’s money. (Alert: Abortions make up less than 3% of the services PP provides).

What’s important about this “investigation”? Well for one thing, it hasn’t really started yet. Stearns hasn’t actually held any Congressional hearings, because the majority office (essentially, John Boehner) hasn’t given him the go-ahead. As Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz said, “They are deliberately just stalling and sitting on this”.

John Raefelli, a board member of the Komen Foundation, said:

People don’t understand that a congressional investigation doesn’t necessarily mean a problem of substance. When people read about it in places like Texarkana, Texas, where I’m from, it sounds really bad.

Raefelli hit the nail on the head with that one - people just don’t understand what’s going on. 

[Source: TB Times]