The timing couldn’t be more amusing.
Two weeks after Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) took House GOP leaders to task for failing to even consider exercising their oversight responsibilities over the Bush administration, House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-Va.) decided to respond with a vigorous defense.
Where abuses have been found, they are being addressed by a contracting and auditing process that protects the public from waste and mismanagement. Our hearings are part and parcel of a functioning oversight process.
Beyond these hearings, and contrary to Waxman’s claims, the Republican Congress has conducted substantial oversight on a wide range of issues that are important to the American people.
Davis doesn’t mention, of course, that GOP leaders, including himself, have rejected calls for hearings on the Plame Game scandal, non-existent WMD in Iraq, possibly illegal administration lies about the cost of Bush’s Medicare scheme, and the widespread and horrific prison abuses in Iraq.
On the very same day Davis defended the imaginary oversight the GOP has exercised over Bush, Davis announced that he’s launching a committee investigation into Sandy Berger.
The main investigative committee in the Republican-led House will look into allegations Clinton administration national security adviser Sandy Berger mishandled highly classified terrorism documents, lawmakers said Wednesday.
Even though the matter already is the subject of a Justice Department criminal probe, House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis said the panel has “a constitutional responsibility to find out what happened and why.”
It’d be funny if it weren’t so ridiculous.
To be sure, Berger seriously screwed up and his career is effectively ruined. He removed his own handwritten notes and copies of important classified material out of the National Archives and clearly should have known better.
But Berger’s mistake, while possibly illegal, had no effect on the 9/11 Commission’s work, the Justice Department does not consider this a serious matter, and no original source materials were touched, lost, or altered. Indeed, the incident happened 10 months ago without the FBI even chatting with Berger about it.
Davis’ op-ed defense not withstanding, it’s yet another comical double standard. Berger took his own notes and some photocopies home to help inform the 9/11 Commission. This, according to Davis and the GOP, requires an immediate congressional inquiry to add to the ongoing Justice Department probe. The White House, meanwhile, exposed the identity of an undercover CIA agent working on weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East in order to spite her husband for criticizing Bush. Davis and the GOP consider this unworthy of their time.
Indeed, when asked about the Plame Game investigation, months after the scandal began, Davis said, “I know Ashcroft very well, and I’m sure he’ll go by the book.” He added that the matter should be looked at by “career FBI agents,” as opposed to congressional lawmakers.
And yet, just two days after the Berger story hit the papers, Davis leaps into action, announces his own hearings, and implicitly explains that he is unsatisfied with “career FBI agents” and Ashcroft’s Justice Department handling this matter on their own.
Hey! Tom Davis can move mighty quickly when he puts his mind to it! I wonder what the difference between these two cases is?