Have Democrats Forgotten How to Do Oversight?

[babylonsister]

Have Democrats Forgotten How to Do Oversight?
Jim Lardner
August 15, 2019
Some advice from old pros on how—and why—to go after the myriad misdeeds of Trumpworld


It’s time for House Democratic leaders to map out a coordinated and thoughtfully sequenced series of hearings and investigations into President Trump’s crimes.

August has arrived, and not a moment too soon for the Democrats of the House of Representatives. Let us imagine them making the most of it. Picture this recess as their chance to examine past mistakes and present circumstances and to ask themselves, now that their dream of a deus-ex-Mueller has been dashed, how they might finally begin to use their own powers—the powers of the unit of government they control—to illuminate the crimes, misdeeds, and maladministration of Donald Trump, his family, his campaign, and his gang of appointees and accomplices.

Let us certainly hope that question is on their minds. Meanwhile, I have posed it to a range of experts on congressional oversight, and their answers add up to something like a consensus judgment on how the Democrats should and shouldn’t proceed.

One key shouldn’t: They should not see their task simply as one of picking up the package of evidence handed to them by Robert Mueller and continuing to pursue the case he was either unable to nail or unwilling to state. Mueller felt bound to define his investigation narrowly, sticking to the trail of a potential Trump-Russia plot to meddle in the 2016 elections and adjacent offenses. The House, my panel of authorities agrees, needs to define its investigation broadly, as an inquiry into the bigger and more basic problem of kleptocratic corruption—of self-enrichment, crony enrichment, and betrayal of the public trust.

That rich realm encompasses three sub-territories. The first consists of all the areas where the Trumps have tried to turn the presidency to personal profit, whether by sneaking a $60 million real-estate developers’ tax break into the Republican tax package; getting government entities, contractors, and supplicants to purchase overpriced lodgings at Trump properties; or doing whatever they did with the $100 million supposedly raised for the inauguration ceremonies. In the second zone lie the various members of the president’s circle who, following his lead, have taken financial advantage of official positions or Trump ties. That domain blurs over into a third, in which we find the galaxy of federal departments and agencies that, thanks to the strategic placement of industry lobbyists and corporate insiders in the decision-making ranks, now routinely bow down to corporate interests at everybody else’s expense.

Plain old money corruption is the recurring theme everywhere in Trumpworld, his dealings with Russia included. He signaled as much in July 2017 when he warned the newly named special prosecutor (via an interview with The New York Times) that the Russia probe would cross a red line if it touched on Trump’s finances. That was surely the concern behind the “I’m fucked” rant memorialized in the Mueller report: Trump had every reason to expect a Russia inquiry to morph into a financial inquiry because, of course, he drew no such line himself. Although Mueller wound up chronicling acts that bordered on subversion, any loyalty to a foreign power was incidental: The real goal for Trump and the aides, agents, and hangers-on in contact with shady Russians during the campaign and transition was to make money.

more...

https://prospect.org/article/have-democrats-forgotten-how-do-oversight

[canetoad]

1. What an excellent article Sis

I hope that the Democratic leadership see this as a matter of timing; the enquiries have begun, now run the clock down so the subsequent hearings and the dirt they uncover, peaks at a time that is politically advantageous to Democrats.

Don't know if you've read these; both important articles:

https://www.lawfareblog.com/road-map-impeachment-proceedings-what-watergate-can-teach-us-about-unsealing-mueller-report

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/08/is-there-hope-for-the-american-republic-after-trump.html -chilling comparisons between the USA and Rome.

Hope you are well

[lagomorph777]

2. Trumpworld is a target-rich environment. Investigate every target publicly

and yes, run the clock down with one damning revelation after another. Put every one of these thieves, cronies, current and ex adminstration, family, hangers-on, etc on the stand and squeeze them hard.

[JudyM]

3. K&R.

[LessAspin]

4. Henry Gonzalez & Henry Waxman are rolling in their graves...

Last edited Sat Aug 17, 2019, 10:33 PM - Edit history (1)

Well, actually Waxman is still alive, but you get my point.

This subject strikes a chord with me because I've thought this to be the case for quite a while now. Specifically with regard to Henry Waxman.

Having followed this since Watergate, the Church and Pike Committees, and Iran-Contra. There was a stark contrast to the way Democrats conducted oversight prior to losing power in 1994 to the times they've regained power starting in 2007.

Henry Waxman, for one, seemed to have taken a much different approach, the second time around. Waxman is retired now but it does seem that he and his colleagues, that are still active, are much less aggressive now than their counterparts of the past.