Waxman sinks teeth into watchdog role

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.

His committee room is where former CIA spy Valerie Plame spoke publicly for the first time about the administration's leak of her identity, and where former Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld denied knowing of a coverup of ex-football star Pat Tillman's death by friendly fire.

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

YOU are the only one that's making any headway with this disastrous administration.
I wish you had more power and more Dems with spines to help.

Nothing is going to happen. None of the perpetrators are ever going to pay for their crimes. And the beat will continue to go on.

:shrug:

theres been hearings and theres been hearing's and nothing ever comes of it except for the glee I feel momentarily when I happen to catch one
Hank needs some help gd'it is my battle cry

:mad:

5 really appreciate Waxman's determination, but for all these hearings (including Leahy's and Conyers) and no one has seen jail time.