Congress and the GOP are losing a powerful voice and the entire DC area is utterly confused. Who are we talking about? Pitbull chairman of the House oversight committee, Jason Chaffetz (aka @jasoninthehouse) is apparently not going to in the House for much longer.
Yesterday news broke that he would not be seeking re-election in 2018. Reminder that Chaffetz and Nunes were tasked with investigating Trump/Russia. Nunes stepped aside after his crazy, straight out of a Mr. Bean movie, midnight rendezvous on the White House grounds shenanigans where he was trying to cook up *proof* of Obama wiretapping came to light. Now Trump is losing his other best friend. But WHY??
While we were all sitting around playing armchair detective, even more craziness came to light today:
Now, reports are surfacing that Chaffetz may be leaving his role before his term is even up:
The Hill reports that Chaffetz told KSL Radio: "I will continue to weigh the options, but I might depart early" on Thursday.
And literally as I was typing this post, these tweets starting blowing up my feed:
No one knows what the heck is going on. Chaffetz used the tried and true "desire to spend more time with his family in Utah and return to the private sector" excuse that is most often cited.
The most odd part - there are 19 months left before the midterms. To run out the door so soon speaks to something possibly more sinister. Is he compromised in some way? Do the Russians have kompromat on him? No one knows for sure...but the timing sure is suspicious.
Will his new handle be @JasonInTheBigHouse one day?
UPDATE:
It appears that Chaffetz is using his remaining time in office to leverage a juicy TV gig or some wingnut welfare, according to Politico.
“I started poking around to see what I might be worth and what sort of possibilities are there,” Chaffetz said in a phone interview with POLITICO Thursday afternoon. “And I got a series of ‘Let us know when you’re serious.’ Well now I can say, ‘Can you tell I am serious?’… I’ll take a little bit of time to sort out. I’d be thrilled to have a television relationship. But there’s a number of things I’d like to do.”
...
“I might depart early,” he said in the interview. “It’s not tomorrow, it’s not next week. If it is, it’s going to be in the months to come.”
Asked if he is resigning because of a yet-to-be revealed scandal, Chaffetz said, “Absolutely, positively not.
“Not in any way shape or form,” he said. “I’ve been given more enemas by more people over the last eight years than you can possibly imagine. From the Secret Service to the Democratic Party. I am who I am. If they had something really scandalous, it would’ve come out a long, long time ago.”
