Montini: How tainted are the Planned Parenthood videos?

Will Congress members like our own Sen. John McCain go after the folks who secretly taped Planned Parenthood employees as fiercely as they’re going after Hillary Clinton's email?

Will they go after the video makers at all?

Getting to the truth is important, right?

Or are there some truths that some of us would prefer to avoid, depending on our political persuasion?

Planned Parenthood has sent a report to Congress saying the videos that an anti-Planned Parenthood group has been putting out, hoping to have the organization defunded, have been highly edited.

According to Planned Parenthood, their forensic experts found more than 40 instances where the video was spliced. They also claim that conversations were taken out of context in a way that altered the meaning of what was said. And they claim that entire sections of video were missing from the meetings at which the conversations took place.

So, will Republicans in Congress demand ALL of the available video evidence – unedited -- from the organization that has been releasing it – the Center for Medical Progress? And will they do so as aggressively as they sought to retrieve ALL of Hillary Clinton’s email?

The law says that abortion providers can’t profit from the sale of fetal tissue. According to Planned Parenthood, only clinics in California and Washington provide the tissue for medical research, and they say those clinics follow the law.

According to Planned Parenthood’s hired experts there were more than 40 instances where the video was spliced, as well as many other problems.

Congress didn’t trust Clinton’s explanation of her use of a personal email account during her time as secretary of state. They’re doing their own, multiple investigations. Will the same scrutiny be brought to bear on the anti-Planned Parenthood videos?

I have my doubts, since so many Republicans, including Sen. McCain, are already trying to defund the organization, while I haven’t heard ANY of them saying an independent examination of the unedited tapes should be done before any judgments are formed.

When a Senate bill to defund Planned Parenthood failed McCain was among those who spoke out in favor of blocking the federal budget bill, effectively shutting down the government, until Planned Parenthood is defunded.

“I don’t like a government shutdown,” McCain told NPR, “but this is a clear case of totally improper use of taxpayers’ dollars.”

Is it?

Or was that an opinion based on faulty, altered “evidence?”

Will Congress step back and take a more fair and thorough approach, conducting an actual investigation? Or with a subject like Planned Parenthood is it like Jack Nicholson's character says in A Few Good Men:  “You can’t handle the truth.”