Secret Service Targets Tea Party Darling, Jason Chaffetz

Some on the left may fancy the Tea Party and conservatives in general–you know, those fly over country folks–as paranoid of government power, but fear in the face of continued evidence is hardly paranoia; it’s common sense.

And common sense dictates that the executive branch should not be seeking to embarrass members of Congress, especially a member chairing an oversight committee on executive actions.

Yet, this is exactly what has come to pass: Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz, darling of the Tea Party, had his personal information targeted by the very agency he was investigating: the Secret Service.

Unelected bureaucrats seem sensitive to oversight by the people’s elected representatives.

As NBCNEWS reports:

Chaffetz, R-Utah — who has aggressively pursued allegations of Secret Service misconduct as chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform — called the unauthorized retrieval of his unsuccessful application to join the Secret Service in 2003 ‘a tactic designed to intimidate and embarrass me.’

The improper handling of Chaffetz’s personal information was confirmed Wednesday in a 29-page report by the inspector general’s office of the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Secret Service.

The report discloses an email in which Ed Lowery, the agency’s assistant director for training, wrote that ‘some information that he might be find embarrassing needs to get out.’

In trying to embarrass Chaffetz, the Secret Service officials have simply found another way to bare their own asses to the public while breaking federal law. This comes after the Secret Service allowed an intruder to climb the fence of the White House grounds and enter the White House itself, were found in Bogota partying with hookers, and completely fumbled an investigation into a gunman who successfully shot a White House window.

After these scandals, one can hardly blame Chaffetz for wanting to look into the Secret Service. Yet, only 18 minutes into a committee hearing chaired by Chaffetz, the Secret Service was looking into his personal information.

With news like this, conservatives are hardly wearing tin-foil hats when they say the executive branch has grown too big and is out of control in a self-serving way.

And it begs the question: is the left so blind to common sense that they can’t see our republic is being destroyed by unelected bureaucrats who now hold more power than our representatives?

Only they can answer.