A few weeks before the midterm election debacle, the White House received an ominous signal. Seven Republican senators issued a letter asking for an investigation of President Barack Obama's top economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee. During a background briefing call with reporters, Goolsbee had casually referred to what he believed was the tax status of Koch Industries to make a point about companies that duck corporate taxes. Because the billionaire Koch brothers have financed much anti-Obama political activity, conservatives immediately suspected something more nefarious: that Goolsbee had rifled through confidential IRS records to dig up information on political enemies. Calls quickly came for a full-fledged investigation. The IRS inspector general told the senators he would review the matter, and the episode faded from public view. But what if the get-Goolsbee Republicans had been in control of a chamber of Congress? They could have launched their own investigation, issued subpoenas, demanded information from the White House and the IRS. Goolsbee would have been forced to lawyer up. He and his colleagues would have been preoccupied with a congressional probe, rather than the country's economic woes.
Starting in January, such a scenario is entirely possible. Republicans, in control of the House, will be able to pursue whatever probes they desire. How might they handle such power? For a clue, we have to look back into the mists of history—all the way to...the 1990s. With the tea partyized GOP now in charge, it may well be back to the future in Washington.
Hayden Panettiere Jules Asner Whitney Able Kelly Clarkson Natalie Portman
