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Oversight

Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared before a Senate oversight committee yesterday and refused to answer questions she didn't like from the Democrats, casually accusing them of crimes without offering any proof.  It started me thinking about oversight.

The US was founded in opposition to the notion of any leader being free of oversight; our three branches of government were set up to check the power of each other. It is failing now because all three of the branches are under the control of a party or politicians who have betrayed their oaths to serve the constitution.

In my own professional life I have had oversight the entire time. As a faculty member I have often reported to a department chair; when serving as department chair I have reported to a dean or associate dean; when serving in our shared governance system, chairing a Task Force, the Curriculum Committee, and Academic Council I have had oversight from Academic Council.

Oversight can be frustrating but almost all of my oversight has been constructive involving courteous colleagues who seek for me to do better. I am better in many ways than I began 37 years ago and the oversight is a large part of that.

Oversight in politics often does lead to soundbites rather than coherent thoughts but that is the fault of not just a lazy media but also a lazy electorate which is content with soundbites. No audience, no show.

Elected officials and their appointees who categorically reject oversight though simply do not wish to be better, in whatever sense the word better means. Bondi performed for her one master, Trump, and acted as he would have in that seat. The Republic is ill-served.

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