Byron York writes in the Washington Examiner about why Democrats are concerned about the GOP winning control of the House and conducting oversight operations:
Speaking to a group of left-wing activists at the annual Netroots Nation convention in Las Vegas, Democratic Sen. Al Franken painted a bleak picture of what will happen if Republicans win control of Congress.
“They’ll implement a truly dangerous agenda,” Franken said Saturday. “Everything is on the table, from repealing health care reform to privatizing Social Security.” Not only will GOP lawmakers “punch loopholes in our regulations,” they will also “shred the social safety net,” while their “corporate backers” work to enact “an even more dangerous agenda.”
Bad as all that might be, Franken suggested that a little-known Republican congressman from California is plotting something even worse. “Darrell Issa is planning to double his staff,” Franken said, referring to the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, “and embark on a witch hunt in hopes of bringing down the Obama administration.”
A lot of Republicans chuckled when they heard that. Issa planning to double his staff? Well yes, that’s what happens when a party takes over the House. Since 1995, the practice of the oversight committee has been to have a two-to-one ratio of majority to minority staff. When Democrats took control after winning the House in 2006, they doubled their staff, while the losing Republicans cut theirs in half. If Republicans win in 2010, they will double their staff and Democrats will cut theirs in half. That’s the way it works.
Perhaps Franken, who has only been a senator for a year, and always with a big Democratic majority, doesn’t know that. He has never experienced the dislocation a change in party control brings to Capitol Hill. Of course, if Democrats lose the Senate in November, he’ll learn quickly.
Staffing numbers aside, the core of Franken’s charge is that Issa will carry out a “witch hunt” to bring down President Obama. By “witch hunt,” Franken is referring to what Republicans call “oversight.”
“Darrell Issa’s sole responsibility is to ensure that oversight keeps pace with a government that has exploded in responsibility and size,” says Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella. “This committee exists for the purpose of looking at the government bureaucracy and ensuring that, due to legitimate and vigorous oversight, the bureaucracy works best to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars.”
dante // Jul 27, 2010 at 9:05 am
So the question is, will the Republicans learn from their mistakes? Their actions in the 1990s drove UP the favorability numbers of Clinton, to the point that when the Democrats took over Congress in 2006 they *didn’t* start a slew of investigations (and there were plenty to have chosen from, the Iraq War, Cheney’s energy policy meetings, etc). The question is whether the Republicans have learned their lesson, or is Bachmann going to be in charge of Patriotism Hearings?
drdredel // Jul 27, 2010 at 10:26 am
republicans are anti-learning. So… dante… the answer to your question is…..
no.
LFC // Jul 27, 2010 at 11:12 am
By “witch hunt,” Franken is referring to what Republicans call “oversight.”
Uh, Byron, you DO realize that Republicans have a bit of history that can’t remotely be called “oversight”, right? Or did you spend the late-1990s out of the country and away from the news?
msmilack // Jul 27, 2010 at 11:38 am
I’m pretty sure the only thing Democrats fear from Republicans is more NO votes in place of governing. The GOP is too weak and too feckless to inspire fear in anyone. Their behavior is simply shameful.
balconesfault // Jul 27, 2010 at 4:20 pm
I’m up for the Republican Party providing the same level of oversight to the Obama Administration as they did to the Bush Administration.
No. Wait. Strike that. No administration – even one that I support the policy agenda of – should be given that much deference by Congress, ever.
I look forward to the first major hearings on why the Obama Administration began the practice of appointing “czars”. Seriously, were the Republicans to take the House or Senate, I could see that coming.
msmilack // Jul 27, 2010 at 9:13 pm
balconesfault
What confounds me is how the GOP can pretend to be so fiscally responsible when they said nothing at all during the big spending in the previous GOP administrations. The word double-standard comes to mind.
I’m hoping they do not take the House or Senate both because the country can’t prosper under their leadership and because losing might wake them up to the fact that they have defaulted on their responsibility to govern; not all of them, but the ones who vote in a bloc with a resounding NO. How can they honestly vote against the disclosure law (as they did today — NOT against the law but against even discussing the law)? One reason is that all the people who were appalled by the Supreme Court decision (and let it be known to the elected officials) have not connected the dots, do not understand that it’s the same issue and have not expressed their disapproval; it might be time for the Democrats to vote on the issue every day until they get the response they need. Otherwise, corporate ads, here we come. I suppose the spending by Whitman in California was our first taste of what is to come — minus an attribution of who is paying for the ad.
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