Now that Congress is back in session, it's time to do the people's business again. So let's get on with the nuisance hearings again, shall we?

Topic A: Thanks to the McClatchy folks, let's look in on the scandal that is the administration's giving Iran its own fcking money back.

GOP Rep. Sean Duffy of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Financial Services subcommittee on oversight and investigation, said the evidence presented made it difficult to believe the payment wasn't a ransom. He asked the witnesses if they could guarantee that the money will not fund terrorism. "I can't speak for every dollar that goes in and out of Iran, as you know," Backemeyer said.

Hold on a second. Common sense got caught in my throat there for a minute. The crime dog on this case is…this guy? I mean, really, this guy? At least Trey Gowdy was a prosecutor once. This guy is a former reality show star who first got famous as a politician by whining about his congressional salary. This is that deep bench again.

But, since we are handed this lemon, let's make some lemonade, shall we? Let's go back to the golden days of early 1981, when the great sunshine of Amon-Ra Reagan had fallen upon the land, and some hostages came home—after which $12 billion in Iranian assets that Jimmy Carter had frozen suddenly were thawed. Six years later, he let them have $454 million more of their assets. There was a great unfreezing under the Reagan Administration.

In between, of course, the administration sold them some lovely missiles at a decent price. Even if you don't believe that William Casey jacked around with the mullahs during the 1980 campaign—And I do believe that he did—there's no question that Ronald Reagan was in business with Iran almost from the moment he first sat down in the Oval Office, and a helluva lot more business than Barack Obama ever thought of doing. And it all proceeded from the release of the hostages in 1981.

Plus, really now, this guy?

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Our Nation's Capital, McClatchy reports that another predictable hooley has broken out in another committee room.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, opened the hearing by condemning Clinton for intentionally making a "mess" of the system for archiving and retrieving documents at the State Department that has frustrated legitimate requests for information from Congress, the media and the public…For example, Chaffetz noted, The Associated Press had to go to court to obtain all the detailed planning schedules from Clinton's four-year tenure as the nation's top diplomat. Patrick Kennedy, undersecretary of state for management, told the committee the agency is improving its records management but continues to struggle with the heavy volume of open-records requests it receives. For more than two hours, Kennedy sparred with lawmakers over a range of questions related to Clinton's records. He said the department is currently sorting through thousands of records it received from the FBI following its investigation of Clinton.

Welcome to the next four years.

Maybe.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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