Waxman Sinks Teeth Into Watchdog Role (Oversight "in some ways more important than legislating")

[Hissyspit]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-10-07-waxman_N.htm

Waxman sinks teeth into watchdog role

Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman says oversight is "in some ways even more important than legislating."

By Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Erik Prince, the former Navy commando who runs Blackwater USA, has rarely spoken publicly about his company's billion-dollar security work for the U.S. government in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But last week, Prince found himself in a packed congressional hearing room, raising his right hand as shutters clicked and television cameras rolled. Hours of uncomfortable questions followed.

More than anyone else, one man made it happen: Democrat Henry Waxman of Los Angeles, a three-decade House veteran whose bald, mustachioed, bespectacled mien has become the face of oversight in Congress.

"I want you to know that Blackwater will be accountable today," Waxman said in his opening statement.

The hearing underscored the impact of having Waxman at the helm of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Democrats may have gained control of Congress in last year's elections, but their majority isn't always enough to make a difference. In the Senate, for instance, Republicans have enough votes to block Democratic legislation. But in the House of Representatives, the Republicans can't stop Waxman, who wields his subpoena power to investigate the Bush administration and its allies.

"Let's be honest, it's a pretty target-rich environment for Mr. Waxman these days," quipped David Marin, the oversight committee's Republican staff director. Other Republicans accuse Waxman of partisan grandstanding, or "following the dictates of trial lawyers," as Florida Rep. John Mica put it.

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[Hubert Flottz]

1. Henry Waxman is a patriot.

I'm glad he's in Washington.

[Zandor]

2. Another good reason to vote Democratic n/t

[cascadiance]

3. I love these efforts he's doing, but it is still incomplete until he talks to Sibel Edmonds!

We don't need just make Republicans "look bad" with all of these exposures of misdeeds, we need to go for the throat and get the right people in here to shut things down, and perhaps give us the ammo for the impeachments that Americans will demand when they hear the truth from people like Sibel.