House Subpoenas Todd Park, Marks Him as Next Healthcare.gov Scapegoat

Everyone seems to agree that someone should get fired over the Obamacare launch, though no one can confidently say who deserves a pink slip. On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will grill its newest candidate: Todd Park, the White House's Chief Technology Officer. The oversight committee really, really wants to talk to Park, so much so that, last Friday, Rep. Darrell Issa, the committee chairman, sent him an invite to a hearing this Wednesday with a subpoena attached. Park's supporters argue that he's kind of busy right now, what with Healthcare.gov still being a mess.

Democrats on the Oversight committee wrote to Issa on Monday, asking him to withdraw his "unnecessary and misguided" subpoena. Issa might give in to letters that call his actions unnecessary and misguided, but he's more likely to argue that, if Park has time to chat with the New York Times and USA Today, then why did he ditch the last two hearings?

Maybe because it's sure to be an extremely unpleasant experience. This subpoena puts him among the ranks of other high-ranking officials involved in the project and blamed for its failed launch. First there was Kathleen Sebelius, who managed to take a disastrous turn on The Daily Show before attending two hearings. Like Park, Sebelius was criticized for dodging the committee. Henry Chao, the Department of Health and Human Services' Deputy Chief Information Officer, was briefly in the spotlight when contractors blamed him for the delay of the website's window shopping tool. Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Chief Information Officer Tony Trenckle announced he was stepping down, or "retiring," making him the first casualty of the website.

Read the full story on Atlantic Wire.