And speaking of overplaying the Sandy Berger non-story, I almost forgot to mention how ridiculous House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-Va.) has become. It’s reached the point in which parody is no longer possible because reality is too absurd.
About a month ago, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) took Davis to task for his failure to show any sense of non-partisanship in his leadership of the key House oversight committee. Davis responded in late-July with a vigorous defense in a Washington Post op-ed.
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.
“Substantial oversight”? I don’t think so.
In addition to the lengthy list of wrongdoings that should have prompted Davis to at least hold a hearing or two (the Plame Game leak scandal, the Medicare cost deception, the Abu Ghraib abuses), this week’s news has torn the mask off any pretense of Davis’ impartiality.
Two — count ’em, two — high profile Republican lawmakers have been caught just this week divulging classified information to the media: Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.) leaked a (highly suspect) report about a terrorist plot to blow up a power grid in Indiana, while Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) leaked details of an FBI briefing about untranslated 9/11 warnings.
Davis, who claims to be committed to “substantial oversight,” responded to these controversies with the following:
(picture tumbleweeds rolling by)
And here’s the kicker: While Davis couldn’t care less about his GOP colleagues’ leaks, he still plans to investigate Sandy Berger.
Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis (R-Va.) is moving forward with an investigation of former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger’s removal of classified documents from the National Archives.
Davis spokesman David Marin said that the panel’s staff has already begun scheduling meetings and briefings in connection with the Berger investigation, though he emphasized that, contrary to some press reports, there are no plans to hold hearings yet.
[…]
“These allegations are deeply troubling, and it’s our constitutional responsibility to find out what happened and why,” Davis said.
Berger was caught taking home some photocopies by accident. His mistake 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. Even more importantly, he’s already been cleared of wrongdoing.
Davis considers this serious enough for a committee investigation. Shelby and Harris, meanwhile, blab to the press about classified terrorist investigations and Davis’ sense of his “constitutional responsibilities” suddenly goes missing.
It’d be funny if it weren’t so sad.