Though it’s sure to be lost in the shuffle because of the huge Edwards announcement, Henry Waxman had an op-ed in today’s Washington Post that deserves attention.
Waxman, who has led a one-man army against the embarrassing lack of oversight Congress has exercised over the Bush White House, notes first how different things were just one president ago. Thorough, expensive, and completely unnecessary congressional investigations were launched, for example, into ridiculous pseudo-scandals such selling burial plots in Arlington National Cemetery, allegedly doctored videotapes of fundraising coffees, selling national security secrets to China, and so on.
During the Clinton administration, Congress spent millions of tax dollars probing alleged White House wrongdoing. There was no accusation too minor to explore, no demand on the administration too intrusive to make.
[…]
Committees requested and received communications between Clinton and his close advisers, notes of conversations between Clinton and a foreign head of state, internal e-mails from the office of the vice president, and more than 100 sets of FBI interview summaries. Dozens of top Clinton officials, including several White House chiefs of staff and White House counsels, testified before Congress. The Clinton administration provided to Congress more than a million pages of documents in response to investigative inquiries.
This stands in stark contrast, Waxman notes, with the complete abdication of responsibility since.
Republican Rep. Ray LaHood aptly characterized recent congressional oversight of the administration: “Our party controls the levers of government. We’re not about to go out and look beneath a bunch of rocks to try to cause heartburn.”
Funny, I don’t recall “don’t cause heartburn for Republican presidents” being part of the congressional oath of office.
As Waxman noted, there’s plenty of areas for the House to explore.
Republican leaders in Congress have refused to investigate who exposed covert CIA agent Valerie Plame, whose identity was leaked after her husband, Joe Wilson, challenged the administration’s claims that Iraq sought nuclear weapons. They have held virtually no public hearings on the hundreds of misleading claims made by administration officials about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and ties to al Qaeda.
They have failed to probe allegations that administration officials misled Congress about the costs of the Medicare prescription drug bill. And they have ignored the ethical lapses of administration officials, such as the senior Medicare official who negotiated future employment representing drug companies while drafting the prescription drug bill.
The House is even refusing to investigate the horrific Iraq prison abuses. One Republican chairman argued, “America’s reputation has been dealt a serious blow around the world by the actions of a select few. The last thing our nation needs now is for others to enflame this hatred by providing fodder and sound bites for our enemies.”
Compare the following: Republicans in the House took more than 140 hours of testimony to investigate whether the Clinton White House misused its holiday card database but less than five hours of testimony regarding how the Bush administration treated Iraqi detainees.
Lawmakers, even Republicans, surely realize that one of Congress’ key responsibilities is to serve as a check on presidential power. With Congress effectively ceding that role for four years, we’re left with the consequences — a White House that believes it can do literally anything it wants.
The congressional leadership is wrong to think that its current hands-off approach protects President Bush. In fact, it has backfired, causing even more harm than the overzealous pursuit of President Clinton. Lack of accountability has contributed to a series of phenomenal misjudgments that have damaged Bush, imperiled our international standing and saddled our nation with mounting debts.
Some Republicans, including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) admit that Dems are better at executive branch oversight. That’s nice, I suppose, since admitting you have a problem is the first step to correcting it.
But I’m anxious to see when the GOP will take the next step and begin to exercise its oversight obligations again. I have a hunch I know the exact date: January 22, 2005, a few hours after John Kerry is sworn in as the nation’s 44th president.