The Hollywood Liberal

Democrats in Congress kick oversight into overdrive

LA Times
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON — One day last week, the entire Federal Communications Commission was summoned for the first time in three years before a House committee, where its members were grilled for five hours and told to expect to be “frequent guests.”

On another day, Congress authorized subpoenas for Justice Department officials in its escalating investigation into the murky reasons offered by the Bush administration for its decision to fire eight U.S. attorneys.

And on yet another day, former covert CIA operative Valerie Plame was the star witness at a hearing where she accused White House officials of “recklessly” blowing her cover and destroying her career…..

When Democrats won both houses of Congress in November, they promised vigorous oversight in addition to an ambitious legislative agenda. So far, they appear to be accomplishing more through oversight. None of the bills that were part of the party’s 100-hour spree has yet emerged from Congress. And with their razor-thin margin in the Senate, Democrats cannot count on passing any legislation that most Republicans oppose.

But Republicans can do little to stop the investigative juggernaut.

“The Democrats’ most powerful weapons aren’t legislative bills, but subpoenas and hearings,” said John J. Pitney Jr., a former Republican staffer who is a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College…..

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, neatly illustrated this dynamic in a recent letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

He wrote to ask why President Bush in his 2003 State of the Union address had cited a discredited claim that Iraq was seeking uranium. Waxman noted that Rice had ignored all but five of the 16 letters he had sent over the last five years when his party was in the minority. Then, he pointed out: “I am renewing my request as the chairman of the chief oversight committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.”

In that one sentence, Waxman captured one of the most significant changes on Capitol Hill. Now that they have the gavels and subpoena power, the Democrats can no longer be so easily brushed off.

The administration learned that in recent days as Democratic investigations into the firing of U.S. attorneys have shaken the Justice Department. The department has turned over to the House and Senate Judiciary committees scores of e-mails that show some officials misinformed Congress about how the dismissals were handled and raise questions about whether the dismissals were orchestrated by the White House for political reasons.

HLs Take
This is just the beginning, we can expect investigation after investigation into scandal after scandal for the next 2 years. See Bush and his cronies thought that it was business as usual after the election. They are just beginning to learn a painful lesson. Everything the republicans thought they got away with will be slowly uncovered and brought out into the light until every mainstream media follower knows what we knew years earlier. The war profiteering, the lies that got us into those wars. Maybe even the big one that got the whole ball rolling 9/11. By the time of the next election the republicans will look so bad they wouldn’t be able to be elected rat catcher at Walter Reed. Bush will scurry off to Paraguay never to be seen again. That is if he makes it through the next 2 years.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 at 7:30 am and is filed under H.L. News, Main Blog (All Posts). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.