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Is it any wonder the public has low esteem for this Congress?
The administration has not said when or if it will respond. Spokesman Scott Stanzel said Thursday the White House has received a many requests for information since Democrats took control of Congress in January and has turned over 200,000 pages of documents.
“They’ve launched over 300 investigations, had over 350 requests for documents and interviews and they have had over 600 oversight hearings in just about 100 days,” Stanzel said.
Democrats were dubious of the figures but did not offer their own.
Then do a count, Democrats, and let’s come to a figure we can all agree on.
All that’s being done now is tying the Executive Branch up while searching for documents. Do ya suppose this is the purpose of all these investigations?
Written by ~J~
This is nothing new.
Republicans held congressional hearings into alleged drug use by the White House staff; investments by the President and First Lady when he was Governor of Arkansas and they invested in a land development project known as Whitewater; the operations of the White House travel office; the death of White House deputy counsel Vince Foster; the referral of FBI files to the White House security office; the billing records of former associate attorney general Webster Hubbell; the foreign travel of Secretary of Energy Hazel O’Leary; and President Clinton’s holding coffee klatsches with campaign contributors and inviting others to stay overnight at the White House, in the infamous Lincoln Bedroom.
And these were not passing investigations; to the contrary. For example, the Republican-controlled House devoted 140 hours to taking sworn testimony when investigating whether President Clinton had engaged in misconduct with respect to a Christmas-card fundraiser. Republicans worked mightily to criminalize Democratic political behavior, by using (and abusing) the Independent Counsel Act.
Republicans demanded independent counsel investigations of Henry Cisneros, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for allegedly giving the FBI false information during his background check (Cisneros lied about his finances, but only to cover up an extramarital affair); Bruce Babbitt, for allegedly giving Congress misleading information about an Indian casino proposal; Alexis Herman, Secretary of Labor, for alleged improper campaign finance arrangements; Ron Brown, Secretary of Commerce, for alleged improprieties with respect to his personal finances; and Eli Segal, Director of AmeriCorps, for alleged conflicts of interest. And, of course, an Independent Counsel would investigate the President and First Lady regarding Whitewater, Vince Foster’s death, the travel office, and the Paula Jones lawsuit, which revealed the president’s sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
Independent Counsel Ken Starr would become Congress’s surrogate impeachment counsel, as the House voted to overturn the 1996 election, and the Senate wasted months doing what they could to tarnish President Clinton, but refusing to convict him of any impeachable offense. It was a donnybrook of the highest order.
Typical of the Congressional abuses of power during the Clinton presidency was the operation of the House Committee on Government Reform, which issued a staggering 1,052 subpoenas to investigate the Clinton Administration between 1997 and 2002.
By way of comparison, the committee has issued a paltry three subpoenas to the Bush Administration relating to the appalling handling of Hurricane Katrina - a far more serious matter and one where there are highly credible allegations of the Administration’s incompetence before and after Katrina hit, which resulted in mass suffering and death. In sum, the Republican Congress has been invisible when it comes to oversight of the Bush Presidency.
Conservatively, I would estimate that the costs of Republican investigations of the Clinton Administration, which continued even after Clinton has left the White House, exceeded $200 million. It was clearly abusive, not to mention cruel. The Bush Administration is fortunate that the Independent Counsel Act has expired, and that Democrats do not play the game the way Republicans do.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20061201.html
Did the Republicans have 300 investigations in their first 100 days in power? That’s the question.
The United States Congress is charged by the Constitution to oversee the government. I realize that this isn’t all oversight but let’s face it since 2001 the Republicans investigated nothing and fell short of oversight
. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_the_United_States
I really fail to understand why Bush is held responsible for an Act of God.
Yes, better things could have been done throughout Katrina, including the Governor asking for Federal Troops, since law forbids the president from sending them there without invitation. Things such as the mayor allowing people to evacuate to other places and use the school busses that just sat there. Things such as the governor allowing the Red Cross in to help those in the Dome who were under horrendous conditions.
There’s enough blame to pass around all over on Katrina, but hopefully the lesson has been learned.
I’m not in a peeing contest with you, but since you are hunting for cites to back up your statements then how about giving us the numbers of investigations conducted by the Democratic Congress on Clinton prior to the Republicans taking Congress.
The point is this has happened before 2001 and Clinton. It’s the reason Congress gets such low marks. They are nothing but hired guns.
I think it’s a little more than Katrina. I’m not going to list everything.
A city is located in a bowl at the Gulf of Mexico, and is amazed a hurricane finally got to that city and Bush is to blame. He has some kind of powers!
And I am not in one with you. I’m just trying to state the facts the way I perceive them. It doesn’t always have to be about a pissing contest.
I’ll say no more If that’s what you think I’m doing.
I just read the source and it’s John Dean, disgraced former White House counsel to Nixon. ‘Nuff said.
That doesn’t change the fact of the matter being discussed.
I agreed with you Katrina was mishandled, but it wasn’t just the Administration that mishandled it. Look to the Democratic governor and mayor for a lot of the problems in New Orleans as well as a complacent citizenry who didn’t believe they’d get hit. Recipe for disaster.
I meant to add it does change the matter if not the fact, because we all know how Dean feels about any Republican from dog catcher to president. You take his opinions with a box of salt.
If all you’re going to do is check my sources and call them liars , then there’s no sense discussing this any further.
Back to the original question: Did Republicans, while in power, do over 300 investigations of Clinton in the first 100 days? Yes or no because I don’t know.
I called no one a liar. I said consider the source is someone who is not disposed to being favorable to Republicans.
J,
Try this. It is the closest I can come to answering your question.
Guss, you miss my point, dear.
I’m asking if the Republican Congress, when it came to power in 1994, the mid-term of Clinton’s first term, initiated 300 investigations against Clinton in about 100 days.
Not how many or what investigations followed because we don’t know how many or what other investigations are going to follow in this congressional session. I’m trying to compare apples to apples and not apples to oranges.
Let’s just drop this whole thread. It’s getting nowhere.
I searched but could not find an answer to your question.
I shouldn’t have commented in the first place if I didn’t know the answer. I apologize J.
Guss, my dear brother, don’t ever feel you have to apologize. I misunderstand what you say many times, and what others say too. We are all human. You didn’t wrong me in any way.
Now, I really have to move on. I do have a life. I think.
:-h