Over here at Think Progress is a story on Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) whining about his colleague, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), announcing hearings to investigate whether there was improper use of funds and influence on the part of the White House in Shays' re-election campaign last year. The piece should be read if for no other reason than the video of Shays crying like a baby because a blogger has the audacity to ask him a question. Apparently, only "legitimate" people can ask him a question. . .
The piece is a good springboard for a discussion of the whole issue of government oversight and the current low standing of Congress in the opinion of the American people. Glenn Greenwald has written about this particular issue, most recently here, and I think it is important to repeat his main point - the low favorability ranking of the 110th Congress can only be interpreted as public frustration with a lack of serious investigations and serious counter-weight to the Bush Administration. Indeed, every time the Democrats cave in to Republicans, their numbers tumble.
Yet the argument is still made among what Duncan Black calls Our Very Serious Pundits that the public wants an end to investigations in the name of "getting things accomplished". Of course, when the Democrats actually attempt to "accomplish something", they are criticized for being divisive and not giving the President his due and not working with Republicans. They face the Hobson's Choice of either doing nothing or doing everything and still being criticized, so my won feeling is they should just wave their middle fingers at the lot of Our Very Serious Pundits and the Republican Party they enable and get on with their business. Unfortunately, they have shown neither the spine nor the endurance to face the on-going assault of mindlessness from the chattering classes. Thus our Republic drifts ever closer to ruin. . .
During the 1990's, we were treated to Investigations Without End on President and Mrs. Clinton. Now, many on the left were deeply disappointed with the Clinton Administration, often with good reason. This does not mean, however, that every accusation the right tossed at them was greeted with cheers from the Left and liberals. Indeed, so much time and effort and money was spent in the 1990's to so little result - oral sex in the Oval Office hardly counts as earth-shattering revelations - one wonders how any of those involved back then can show their faces in public without serious, on-going ridicule greeting them. Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), who held the chair of the Government Oversight Committee now chaired by Waxman, even investigated, of all things, the Clinton Christmas Card list, not to mention the suicide of Vince Foster (perhaps the most over-investigated tragedy in recent memory), which featured Burton in Ft. Marcy Park with a watermelon. On the scale of "partisan witch hunts", I do believe this falls somewhere further down the scale than possible illegal influence peddling by the White House in a political campaign. Of course, the whole point of investigations is to discover whether criminal laws were violated; the Republicans fail the smell test so often on public corruption that it is little wonder Waxman wants to find out whether or not there were shady dealings in Connecticut last year, especially when certain allegations and known facts seem to point in that general direction.
The public seems to understand very clearly, just as they did during the entire impeachment nonsense, the difference between legitimate government oversight and nonsensical partisan headline grabbing. They seem quite happy that the Democrats are doing some of their job, and only wish they were both more effective and did a bit more follow-through (those still-missing subpoenas would be nice, you know; perhaps a contempt citation or two as well, with some of the Bush Administration frog-walked before committees so they could either take the fifth or answer why they refuse to appear before Congressional Committees).
Among the many reasons why I am frustrated is this - while they have great hearings now and again (Gonzalez' serial fabrications before the Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as high-talker Schlotzman and the rest of Gonzalez z-list Republican hacks given far too much authority in the Justice Department have been more than mildly entertaining), there is no follow through. It is not enough to call for Gonzalez' resignation. Impeach him. Indict him on contempt of Congress and perjury charges. Do something. Don't wait for these people to hang themselves, because they have enough rope right now to drag everything down. The Democrats are just not playing with all the cards they have in their deck (to continue the gambling analogy from the previous post), and are giving far too much power to those who deserve it least - the Republican minority. I believe their intentions are good - they do not wish to be seen as the bullies; they want to be better than the Republicans were - but they have yielded little in the way of tangible results. My advice (although I know they are not listening) would be to push their agenda as hard and as often as possible until, as British Prime Minister David Lloyd George said of the Germans during the Versailles Conference after the First World War, "the pips squeak".
That would be some oversight.
Virtual Tin Cup
