Text 24892, 81 rader
Skriven 2006-11-10 22:11:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Waxman
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Here's what the American people have to look forward to for the next two 
years.  I am sure they will be so happy.  Dems will focus on this while 
the president will focus on protecting this country.

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http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/10/D8LAEECG1.html

Waxman Set to Probe Areas of Bush Gov't
Nov 10 3:54 PM US/Eastern
   
By ERICA WERNER
Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES

 
The Democratic congressman who will investigate the Bush dministration's 
running of the government says there are so many areas of possible 
wrongdoing, his biggest problem will be deciding which ones to pursue.
 
There's the response to Hurricane Katrina, government contracting in 
Iraq and on homeland security, political interference in regulatory 
decisions by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug 
Administration, and allegations of war profiteering, Rep. Henry Waxman, 
D-Calif., told the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. 

"I'm going to have an interesting time because the Government Reform 
Committee has jurisdiction over everything," Waxman said Friday, three 
days after his party's capture of Congress put him in line to chair the 
panel. "The most difficult thing will be to pick and choose." 

Waxman, who's in his 16th term representing West Los Angeles, had plenty 
of experience leading congressional investigations before the Democrats 
lost control of the House to Republicans in 1994. 

That was the year when, as chairman of an Energy and Commerce 
subcommittee, he presided over dramatic hearings he convened where the 
heads of leading tobacco companies testified that they didn't believe 
nicotine was addictive. 

The scene made it into the movie "The Insider," but Waxman noted Friday 
that no subpoenas were issued to produce that testimony. 

Republicans have speculated that a Democratic congressional majority 
will mean a flurry of subpoenas and investigations into everything under 
the sun as retaliation against the GOP and President Bush. 

Not so, Waxman said. 

"A lot of people have said to me, `Are you going to now go out and issue 
a lot of subpoenas and go on a wild payback time?' Well, payback is 
unworthy," he said. "Doing oversight doesn't mean issuing subpoenas. It 
means trying to get information." 

Subpoenas would be used only as a last result, Waxman said, taking a jab 
at a previous committee chairman, GOP Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana, who 
led the committee during part of the Clinton administration. 

"He issued a subpoena like most people write a letter," Waxman said. 

Waxman complained that Republicans, while in power, shut Democrats out 
of decision-making and abdicated oversight responsibilities, focusing 
only on maintaining their own power. 

In contrast to the many investigations the GOP launched of the Clinton 
administration, "when Bush came into power there wasn't a scandal too 
big for them to ignore," Waxman said. 

Among the issues that should have been investigated but weren't, Waxman 
contended, were the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, the controversy 
over the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name, and the pre-Iraq 
war use of intelligence. 

He said Congress must restore accountability and function as an 
independent branch of government. "It's our obligation not to be 
repeating with the Republicans have done," Waxman said.


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