Top Dem vows Bush investigations
SuzannePjam
Posts: 411
Waxman will probe areas of Bush government
'The most difficult thing will be to pick and choose'
LOS ANGELES - The Democratic congressman who will investigate the Bush administration's running of the government says there are so many areas of possible wrongdoing, his biggest problem will be deciding which ones to pursue.
There's the response to Hurricane Katrina, government contracting in Iraq and on homeland security, political interference in regulatory decisions by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration, and allegations of war profiteering, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., told the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
"I'm going to have an interesting time because the Government Reform Committee has jurisdiction over everything," Waxman said Friday, three days after his party's capture of Congress put him in line to chair the panel. "The most difficult thing will be to pick and choose."
Waxman, who's in his 16th term representing West Los Angeles, had plenty of experience leading congressional investigations before the Democrats lost control of the House to Republicans in 1994.
That was the year when, as chairman of an Energy and Commerce subcommittee, he presided over dramatic hearings he convened where the heads of leading tobacco companies testified that they didn't believe nicotine was addictive.
The scene made it into the movie "The Insider," but Waxman noted Friday that no subpoenas were issued to produce that testimony.
Republicans have speculated that a Democratic congressional majority will mean a flurry of subpoenas and investigations into everything under the sun as retaliation against the GOP and President Bush.
Not so, Waxman said.
"A lot of people have said to me, `Are you going to now go out and issue a lot of subpoenas and go on a wild payback time?' Well, payback is unworthy," he said. "Doing oversight doesn't mean issuing subpoenas. It means trying to get information."
Subpoenas would be used only as a last result, Waxman said, taking a jab at a previous committee chairman, GOP Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana, who led the committee during part of the Clinton administration.
"He issued a subpoena like most people write a letter," Waxman said.
Waxman complained that Republicans, while in power, shut Democrats out of decision-making and abdicated oversight responsibilities, focusing only on maintaining their own power.
In contrast to the many investigations the GOP launched of the Clinton administration, "when Bush came into power there wasn't a scandal too big for them to ignore," Waxman said.
Among the issues that should have been investigated but weren't, Waxman contended, were the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, the controversy over the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name, and the pre-Iraq war use of intelligence.
He said Congress must restore accountability and function as an independent branch of government. "It's our obligation not to be repeating with the Republicans have done," Waxman said.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
'The most difficult thing will be to pick and choose'
LOS ANGELES - The Democratic congressman who will investigate the Bush administration's running of the government says there are so many areas of possible wrongdoing, his biggest problem will be deciding which ones to pursue.
There's the response to Hurricane Katrina, government contracting in Iraq and on homeland security, political interference in regulatory decisions by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration, and allegations of war profiteering, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., told the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
"I'm going to have an interesting time because the Government Reform Committee has jurisdiction over everything," Waxman said Friday, three days after his party's capture of Congress put him in line to chair the panel. "The most difficult thing will be to pick and choose."
Waxman, who's in his 16th term representing West Los Angeles, had plenty of experience leading congressional investigations before the Democrats lost control of the House to Republicans in 1994.
That was the year when, as chairman of an Energy and Commerce subcommittee, he presided over dramatic hearings he convened where the heads of leading tobacco companies testified that they didn't believe nicotine was addictive.
The scene made it into the movie "The Insider," but Waxman noted Friday that no subpoenas were issued to produce that testimony.
Republicans have speculated that a Democratic congressional majority will mean a flurry of subpoenas and investigations into everything under the sun as retaliation against the GOP and President Bush.
Not so, Waxman said.
"A lot of people have said to me, `Are you going to now go out and issue a lot of subpoenas and go on a wild payback time?' Well, payback is unworthy," he said. "Doing oversight doesn't mean issuing subpoenas. It means trying to get information."
Subpoenas would be used only as a last result, Waxman said, taking a jab at a previous committee chairman, GOP Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana, who led the committee during part of the Clinton administration.
"He issued a subpoena like most people write a letter," Waxman said.
Waxman complained that Republicans, while in power, shut Democrats out of decision-making and abdicated oversight responsibilities, focusing only on maintaining their own power.
In contrast to the many investigations the GOP launched of the Clinton administration, "when Bush came into power there wasn't a scandal too big for them to ignore," Waxman said.
Among the issues that should have been investigated but weren't, Waxman contended, were the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, the controversy over the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name, and the pre-Iraq war use of intelligence.
He said Congress must restore accountability and function as an independent branch of government. "It's our obligation not to be repeating with the Republicans have done," Waxman said.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
"Where there is sacrifice there is someone collecting the sacrificial offerings."-- Ayn Rand
"Some of my friends sit around every evening and they worry about the times ahead,
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early bed..."-- Elvis Costello
"Some of my friends sit around every evening and they worry about the times ahead,
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early bed..."-- Elvis Costello
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
all posts by ©gue_barium are protected under US copyright law and are not to be reproduced, exchanged or sold
except by express written permission of ©gue_barium, the author.
I think that would be the most relevant and useful.
Waxman's laundry list will accomplish nothing but cause further division. In addition, the Dems only have about a year to get real stuff done before the presidential campain is in full swing. If they don't focus on real solutions, and producing real results their successes this past election season will be thrown out the window.
Sha la la la i'm in love with a jersey girl
I love you forever and forever
Adel 03 Melb 1 03 LA 2 06 Santa Barbara 06 Gorge 1 06 Gorge 2 06 Adel 1 06 Adel 2 06 Camden 1 08 Camden 2 08 Washington DC 08 Hartford 08
Why? What exactly would you expect to have accomplished?
While we're at it, maybe Waxman should investigate Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus. That would be just as fruitful and useful.
Good insight. I agree. The pre-war intelligence has CIA agents going public before the war saying the facts were being manipulated. A few publicly stepped down and resigned for that reason. It was small story page 11 sort of stuff at the time.
all posts by ©gue_barium are protected under US copyright law and are not to be reproduced, exchanged or sold
except by express written permission of ©gue_barium, the author.
Why, if you're president, would you allow yourself to justify a war on the potential threat of WMD's, if you knew full well at that time that 2 years after you decided to invade the country in question, it would be proven that there were no WMD in Iraq at all?
Untill their will grows tired
My point exactly.
Sorry, didn't mean to repeat, just very stoned.
It's probably not gonna happen though, only petty burglary and intern blowjobs are worthy of the ultimate penalty.
I don't see how they couldn't do both. It's not as if there aren't enough committees to handle this type of workload.
It's not the inept handling of the war that's the issue but rather a concerted effort to distort facts and purposely deceive in order to convince the nation that war is the only answer.
This stuff needs to see the light of day, to disregard it completely would be disingenuous to the principles and ideals of which the US was founded on.
If they do both then I can accept it. But their top priority should be to fix the mishandling of the war and get our troops home. I have no problem with Bush being investigated and holding that fucker accountable, but I do have a problem with it if it comes at the expense of trying to fix the mess in Iraq.
I agree with you completely. Except, the circumstances are different than they were with the petty Clinton stuff. We have real issues that are literally life and death for a lot of our troops, and probably for a lot of innocent Iraqis. I think we need to fix that first. What is done is done and we cant change that, so the dems now need to prevent it from being any worse.
It seems as if getting Iraq straightened out is priority A, B, and C for the incoming Congress. I don't think we have to worry about that issue falling by the wayside. It just seemed as if Dick and Rummy were getting off the hook for their transgressions with all that nice talk from Pelosi and Reid.
I appreciate the comments by Waxman about investigating the pre-war claims and getting to the bottom of some of the corruption both pre and post war. Somebody needs to be held accountable for all the unnecessary loss of both American and Iraqi lives.