The Petty Tyranny of Claire McCaskill.

• Author: Emord, Jonathan W.
• Position: Senate Hearings

Popular TV talk show host Dr. Mehmet Oz was called to testify before the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection. The apparent aim of having Dr. Oz serve as a witness was to browbeat him into ceasing talk about the effectiveness of weight loss supplements on 'The Dr. Oz Show." That, at least, was the mission of the chair of that subcommittee, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D.-Mo.), who proved herself to be a petty tyrant In effectuating that mission.

McCaskill is a friend of the pharmaceutical industry, receiving (as Mike Adams recently reported on the website NaturalNews) more than $146,000 from Express Scripts, a pharmaceutical product retail giant. She is a big fan and defender of the Food and Drug Administration and cheerleader for regulatory enforcement against the makers and sellers of dietary supplements.

Congressional hearings, like this one, oftentimes devolve into a kangaroo court environment where members jockey for media attention, endeavoring to top one another in the character assassination of witnesses. By creating a media spectacle, they hope and pray for a few moments of precious network air time where they might appear authoritative and sound sonorous to the public. They appreciate every opportunity to claim credit for taking down folks who are easy popular targets, oftentimes captains of industry (like General Motors CEO Mary Barra).

The hearing with Dr. Oz was no different. In the midst of it, Chairman McCaskill unwittingly revealed some very unflattering things about herself. Her comments and questions made clear that she has little respect for constitutional protection for freedom of the press, no hesitation to abuse the power of her office, and no problem publicly intimidating a talk show host into accepting her editorial prerogatives over his own.

Anyone who respects the Constitution never would employ public office to censor private speech. Under the First Amendment, the Federal government is disarmed of censorship. Our Founding Fathers viewed those royal governors who prosecuted colonists for seditious libel (and who presumed to dictate what could be published) to be anathema to the unalienable right of liberty, so they placed in the Bill of Rights an amendment designed to end that practice. Nevertheless, throughout our history, those like McCaskili cannot resist abusing their public office to prey upon those whose opinions they despise.

McCaskili recently lost some weight through dieting and exercise; she did not rely...