It's The Accountability, Stupid! House Dem Caucus Plans Series Of Oversight Reports
Ahh, the sweet sound of accountability...
I've just learned that the House Democratic Caucus is planning a new series of what it's calling "Caucus Oversight and Accountability Reports."
The idea is this: the Dem Caucus will be providing periodic progress reports on all the different investigations and oversight stuff that's going on in Congress. Election Central got an advance copy of their first installment.
"This report is part of what will be a continuing series of Democratic Caucus updates on our efforts to conduct real oversight," it reads. "This feature will spotlight recent Democratic oversight efforts and successes, and provide an update on upcoming hearings and investigations Democrats will lead in the coming weeks. We promised to be accountable to the American people, and part of being accountable is letting the country know what you are doing in Washington."
This also appears to reflect a sense among Dem strategists that due to the Attorney Purge and other GOP shenanigans, corruption could remain a potent issue in the 2008 elections, just as it was in 2006.
So if you're interested in following what's going on in the hearing rooms in D.C., but sometimes find all the different committees and their various probes a bit bewildering, you might find this guide by House Dems useful.
You can check out the first one in our TPM Document Collection.
Update: Senate Democrats, it should be pointed out, have been putting out similar oversight reports, too. Their latest is here; last week's is here.
Here are some questions that constantly lurk in the background:
1. Is there anything to the rumors that the Administration ignored the warnings before the 9-11 attacks because they wanted to build a case for invading Iraq? It seems that was the first thing out of their mouths when the attacks came. Bush's stunned silence upon hearing about the attacks may have been because the administration had failed to anticipate the scale and ferocity of the attack. They are good at underestimating things, like hurricanes.
2. What was Cheney's role in: a) manipulating Intelligence about WMD in Iraq; b) the torturing at Abu Graib; c) the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Prison; c) the widespread wiretapping; d) secret rendition; e) the military commissions act?
Some, if not all of these activities may be impeachable offenses, and the American Public has a right to know what happened.
Impeachment proceedings against both Bush and Cheney should be part of, but the entirety, of the ongoing investigations. It is ultimately the public who will decide whether impeachment is appropriate, but the public has a right to know the facts. The Democrats have a moral obligation to the country to investigate all these matters thoroughly.
May 4, 2007 4:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
This will only be as effective as the democrats are upfront about themselves as well as their investigations of the White House and the Republican party. Americans will smell it in a minute if it is otherwise.
Too, the democrats can expect the Republican party to strike back in kind, and don't think they won't.
The only hesitation is, are the democrats making a "contract with America" that will fail in the same manner as the one so overly hyped and such an abysmal failure trumpted by Newt Gringich.
You don't have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
May 4, 2007 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
is that an incomplete draft? Because I didn't see anything about the DoJ mess...
May 4, 2007 5:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
re: ignoring 9/11 warnings. -- If you read David Griffin's book
The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions And Distortions
and Paul Thompson's bookTerror Timeline
there can be little doubt that they ignored warnings and tried (and succeeded so far) to cover that up. I think your description of what was going on in Bush's head during the My Pet Goat reading is most likely spot on.May 4, 2007 5:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah. Where is the DOJ mess and all the stuff about White House emails through the GOP servers? Not to mention the activities of the House Ethics committee. They need to move all the corruption and perversion of the law items to the top of the list and keep them there.
May 4, 2007 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I had the same question when I read the three pages in the document collection.
Is it because so far the Senate has done the work and this is the House - that was my guess...
May 4, 2007 6:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely right! The Democrats are complicit in the events of the last few years since they did not always speak out as they should have (e.g. Richard Durbin's admission).
The Democrats have to proceed cautiously, thoroughly, and professionally, and they have to convince their Republican colleagues of the truth.
May 4, 2007 6:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
It would be very nice if the TPM Document collection would allow PDF downloads instead of making us read documents on-screen. Why not?
Also I really wish the Document Collection had a table of contents so I could scroll through the titles of the documents in the collection and click those I want to read/download. Obviously, this table should be sortable: by date entered (ascending/descending), by title, by source, by tag, etc.
Thanks for listening.
May 4, 2007 6:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes. Agreed. Not sure of what this format is, but no zooming? And your ideas for the Document Collection are inspired. I'm going to just assume that when the TPM team realizes they are not taking advantage of the power of technology to empower their readers, easily remedied by a one time programming cost outlay, they'll begin working on it as soon as they've got someone free to work on it.
May 4, 2007 7:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
This idea rocks, and if it was Rahm's, I've got new found respect for the man. This is exactly the kind of professional product we need to be publishing. Just two things (one absolute necessity and one suggestion):
1) Get a ?#$@!?# web address on that thing! And make sure that url hosts a little button called "Contribute Now!"
2) They ought to start right away with a numbering system that suggests a "codifying" of sorts. Since Republican Corruption is going to be our bread and butter for decades, literally our meal ticket for decades, we will find it much easier to play that card if we institute an organizational framework such as those created for statutory law and legislative actions. A numbering system will facilitate ready access to specific references of corruption apropos to any circumstance. The easier it is to reference a specific instance of Republican Corruption (or instances of Democrats holding other Democrats accountable for that behavior) then the more times we will make the reference, and the more times people hear it, and remember it, and accept it. Also, with a numbering system, we can employ the shorthand of mathmatics, e.g. to refer to instances 9-20 of violations of the Hatch Act, in order to keep things short and sweet for the audience.
Update:
The Senate version has the URL in banner type. Nice.
But no numbering system. And when you click on the "Ovesight" link in the menu to the right, you get a blank page, as you do with several other links there. Not good. Needs mucho work.
The two houses need to standardize the graphics and organizational model.
May 4, 2007 7:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually I LIKE that the TPM Document collection is NOT in PDF format - it takes so much longer to open pdf docs and my browser freezes while acrobat is opening so I have to switch back to doing work while I wait. Or playing spider.
May 4, 2007 9:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, but counting is not measurement. They need to put some teeth into this report, or it will just be a record of busy work.
You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.--- Friedrich Nietzsche
May 4, 2007 11:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
What precisely would you have had Durbin - and it seems only Durbin - do with the classified information he was given?
Indeed some Democrats have been complicit and more. Joe Lieberman is the outstanding example but hardly the only one.
As far as I can tell Durbin acted honorably as best he could. I see no reason to demand martyrdom from one person - and one person only.
Best, Terry
May 5, 2007 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink