Congressional Oversight of the Clinton Administration by Rep Henry Waxman

http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20060117103516-91336.pdf

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The Government Reform Committee is the primary investigative committee in the
House of Representatives. During the Clinton Administration, the chairman of
this Committee unilaterally issued over 1,000 subpoenas to investigate allegations
of misconduct involving the Clinton Administration and the Democratic Party.
The Committee issued 1,089 subpoenas during the six years that Dan Burton
served as chairman from 1997 through 2002. During this period, 1,052 of the
Committee’s subpoenas — 97% — targeted officials of the Clinton
Administration and the Democratic Party; only 11 subpoenas related to
allegations of Republican abuses.4

/snip

I find it interesting that the whiner-in-chief, Dan Burton, is "warning" Democrats that issuing subpoenas may backfire issued 1089 subpoenas in six years. Very interesting report.

who gets TV time needs to hammer this home. This is the type of thing that would make a great talking point.

...logically one might think so; however, consider this: the Republicans will argue that all those subpoenas are prima facie evidence of wrongdoing, using "where there's smoke there's fire" reasoning. That spin will be dutifully spouted by all of the media talking heads, and voila! You'll hear that the Bush administration is sooo much better because, lookie there, hardly any subpoenas at all!

turned out to be bogus. Upon further reflection, the problem I see with it is that issuing subpoenas could be seen as retaliation rather than legitimate.

Thos pigs squeal so loudly all the time that the damned truth gets lost in the noise machine. Like with the Pelosi trip.

Sigh.

...the truth is not what matters anymore, it's the spin. And the spin is done masterfully by the Republicans, especially since they have the press echo chamber to help it along. So they can decide that all those subpoenas sure indicated that something was going on there... that's the "where there's smoke there's fire" reasoning. Conversely, they will take the very few subpoenas issued by Congress against the Bush administration as evidence that this is, indeed, a less corrupt institution than Clinton's was.

Of course what they say is the exact opposite of what is true. But I'm not so sure we can be successful in catapulting this talking point, that's all I'm saying.

Dan Burton keeps getting elected. He does nothing for the citizens of Indiana, except improve his golf game.

this point, many people are beginning to listen. But, I have been wrong, a lot, before.