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Heard on the Hill: There’s a New Sheriff in Town

Look out, wasteful government spenders — there’s a new watchdog on Capitol Hill and his name is Terry Transparency.

Seamus Kraft, an aide to House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa, is responsible for creating the cartoon stick figure, which has been featured in a series of online videos about government waste. Just last week, Kraft took the character one step further by launching a Terry Transparency Twitter handle.

Terry Transparency serves on the “oversight police” and talks in a high-pitched, Mickey Mouse-like voice. He was conceived when Issa and his staff were looking for ways to reach a broader audience.

“I came up with this guy as a simple and funny way to explain some of the work that we’re doing and underscore the really laughable side of what goes on in Washington with other people’s money,” Kraft tells HOH.

Terry Transparency made his debut in a pair of online videos featured on the committee’s website in December 2009, and Kraft assures HOH that there are more to come. The black and white shorts feature clips of prominent government officials such as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner being mocked by the stick figure.

“If you’re being taken to task by a stick figure, you’re probably doing something pretty ridiculous,” Kraft says.

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