Pot (Burton) calls the kettle (Waxman) black Posted 1:15 pm
Roll Call reportedthis week on one of my very favorite pet issues: oversight through the House Government Reform Committee. Apparently, Republicans on the committee are pursuing careers in comedy, because they’re worried about Democrats taking their responsibilities too seriously.
Quote:
Rep. Dan Burton — the Indiana Republican who showered subpoenas on the Clinton White House as chairman of the House Government Reform Committee — is joining other Republicans in warning that the committee under its new Democratic leadership may be abusing its subpoena powers.
At the end of March, as the House was leaving for a two-week recess, Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) issued a report on the oversight plans of every House committee. The report essentially is a compendium of memos from each committee chairman laying out the issues they plan to investigate, from the Agriculture Committee’s plan to review the federal crop insurance program to the Ways and Means Committee’s promise to probe “China’s rampant theft of massive quantities of U.S. intellectual property.â€
But the last few pages were a “minority views†section in which Burton, along with committee ranking member Tom Davis (R-Va.) and most of the other Republican members warned that the Democrats are straying close to the line of what is appropriate in oversight.
“Effective, constructive oversight is much more a matter of due diligence and digging than depositions and sensational disclosures,†the Republicans wrote.
Really? Is that so? Dan Burton & Co. believe Waxman may be going too far? Lanny Davis, special counsel to the White House in the Clinton administration, said, “That is so funny in its obvious double standard that it has got to be Dan Burton’s idea for a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit.â€
I know I had an item on this a few weeks ago, but the very idea that Dan Burton is criticizing Dems on the House Government Reform Committee for excessive oversight deserves special scrutiny.
So far, in the 110th Congress, Waxman has not yet issued a single subpoena. On the contrary, he’s requested information from Bush administration officials without subpoenas and with offers to discuss oversight privately.
Let’s contrast this with how Dan Burton ran (.pdf) the same committee.
Quote:
Before the Republicans took control of Congress in 1995, congressional authority to issue subpoenas was viewed as a serious power to be exercised judiciously. From at least as far back as the McCarthy era in the 1950s to the Republican takeover in 1995, no Democratic committee chairman issued a subpoena without either consent from the minority or a committee vote. This long-standing tradition of restraint was abandoned, however, during the congressional investigations of the Clinton Administration.
The Government Reform Committee is the primary investigative committee in the House of Representatives. During the Clinton Administration, the chairman of this Committee unilaterally issued over 1,000 subpoenas to investigate allegations of misconduct involving the Clinton Administration and the Democratic Party.The Committee issued 1,089 subpoenas during the six years that Dan Burton served as chairman from 1997 through 2002. During this period, 1,052 of the Committee’s subpoenas - 97% - targeted officials of the Clinton Administration and the Democratic Party; only 11 subpoenas related to allegations of Republican abuses. (emphasis added)
Burton handed out subpoenas like candy. He subpoenaed 141 different Clintonites. He held hearings — for 10 days — on the Clintons’ Christmas card list. In one instance, Burton was so reckless, he subpoenaed the wrong man (looking for someone with a similar name). In another instance, Burton fired a bullet into a “head-like object†— reportedly a melon — in his backyard to test the theory that former White House counsel Vincent Foster was murdered (this from the man who is now warning against “sensational disclosuresâ€).
And now Burton is worried about Dems going too far? When Waxman gets close to 1,052 subpoenas, then we’ll talk.
The problem here is not just breathtaking hypocrisy and misguided criticism, it’s that Republicans appear to realize that oversight finally matters again. After six years in which the House Government Reform Committee was practically on sabbatical, Waxman is showing them what governing looks like.
Indeed, Waxman isn’t just targeting the Bush administration. Just in the last few months, the committee has also held hearingson predatory lending and the impact of taxpayer-financed stadiums and convention centers on local economies.
I get the sense that Republicans don’t like being humiliated by a committee chairman who knows what he’s doing, so they’re whining about “abuse†and “excessive†oversight. I have a hunch Waxman isn’t going to lose too much sleep over it.
_________________ Unfortunately, at the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, the Flower Children jerked off and went back to sleep.
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