Congressional Oversight Of Bush Administration Shown To Be Non-Existent

Most people have noticed that there hasn't seemed to be the kind of harassment by Congressional committees of the Bush administration as there was during President Clinton's two terms in office.

That observation seems to be an understatement based on new figures published by the Washington Post:

Democrats on the committee said the panel issued 1,052 subpoenas to probe alleged misconduct by the Clinton administration and the Democratic Party between 1997 and 2002, at a cost of more than $35 million. By contrast, the committee under Davis has issued three subpoenas to the Bush administration, two to the Energy Department over nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain, and one last week to the Defense Department over Katrina documents.

Wow. Everyone knew the Republican controlled Congress would be loath to look at this corrupt administration too carefully, but these numbers are simply outrageous.

"I do not think you can argue today that Congress is a coequal branch of government; it is not," said Lee H. Hamilton, president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman and vice chairman of the Sept. 11 commission, told reporters this month: "It has basically lost the war-making power.

The Constitution gives the Congress the power to declare war. It is the most important power granted to any of the three branches of government. And it has been hijacked.

Last month, House Democrats tried to pass a measure criticizing the GOP for a "refusal to conduct oversight" of the Iraq war. In the Senate, Democrats forced the chamber into a closed session to embarrass Republicans for foot-dragging on an inquiry into the alleged manipulation of Iraq intelligence.

"The House has absolutely zero oversight. They just don't engage in that," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said in an interview last week.

Congress dropped the ball badly. It is looking like they have been more interested in feathering their own nests than carrying out the responsibilities the voters have entrusted to them.

The Bush administration, no strangers to greed, recognized a weakness when it saw one, and took advantage of the avarice of their supposed co-equal branch on Capitol Hill. Of course, the help of the Republican majorities in both chambers was essential:

Specifically, Democrats list 14 areas where the GOP majority has "failed to investigate" the administration, including the role of senior officials in the abuse of detainees; leaking the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame; the role of Vice President Cheney's office in awarding contracts to Cheney's former employer, Halliburton; the White House's withholding from Congress the cost of a Medicare prescription drug plan; the administration's relationship with Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi; and the influence of corporate interests on energy policy, environmental regulation and tobacco policy.

Meanwhile, the House ethics committee has not opened a new case or launched an investigation in the past 12 months, despite outside investigations involving, among others, Cunningham and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The Rethugs say that there is blame enough to go around:

In most cases, Republicans have said that Democrats are motivated by partisanship rather than fact-finding. After Democrats forced the closed Senate session last month over the slow pace of the inquiry into alleged manipulation of Iraq intelligence, Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.) railed: "They have no conviction. They have no principles. They have no ideas. This is a pure stunt."

The nation is relying on Congress to show some independence soon over the recent revelations of illegal NSA warrantless domestic eavesdropping and of military spying on peace groups. A Constitutional crisis is looming.