WP: Frustrated Democrats Find a Voice

[Pirate Smile]

Frustrated Democrats Find a Voice
Lawmakers Use Policy Committee to Investigate Issues They Say GOP Ignores

By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 15, 2005; Page A03

C-SPAN viewers tuning in yesterday morning might have thought they misread the results of November's elections.

There was Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (N.D.) -- a Democrat -- wielding a gavel and calling to order a hearing on Iraq contracts. Dorgan presided over a wood-paneled Senate hearing room, complete with water pitchers on the witness table, name plates for the committee members, and C-SPAN 1 -- live!

But, paying closer attention, the viewers might have noticed that there were no Republicans on the panel, no administration officials at the witness table, and only two Democratic senators in the room. Then, the viewer might have surmised, correctly, that this was not a real committee hearing.

-snip-
But Democrats still have the power to raise a ruckus. And one of their best vehicles for raising a ruckus is the Democratic Policy Committee, a taxpayer-funded entity established by law and given the power to hold meetings, pay for witnesses' travel and, on a good day, get coverage from C-SPAN.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24511-2005Feb14.html

[Skittles]

1. THEY NEED TO START RAISING F***ING HELL

the neocons are sending America in a downward spiral; it has GOT to stop

[Voltaire99]

9. Damn right.

Stand up, jellyfish!

[Rose Siding]

2. Milbank really cut to the nut of the matter in this one

NOT! ALL process, NO substance. The best he did was to include the TOPIC of the hearing.

Why even bother to write it up? Oh, yeah- chase the drama of how completely POWERLESS the dems are. Well they are if the FREAKING reporters won't even go into any DETAIL about the issues they raise!

[Pirate Smile]

4. Well, there is a WP article on the content of the Hearings.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24468-2005Feb14.html

[Rose Siding]

5. Good

And they are listed on the same page. It's weird to see Milbank writing with even less substance than before he left the WH press corps. Since access might not be such a big issue, I kept hoping he'd really get aggressive.

[Pirate Smile]

3. What happened to checks and balances?

"The Democrats' complaint is that Republicans, who control the real committees, will not hold hearings on anything that might embarrass the administration. "There is a serious problem here in the Congress with a lack of oversight hearings," Dorgan said at his hearing/event.

Republicans were not moved by Dorgan's entreaties. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said that Iraq contracts already receive "intense scrutiny" from a variety of entities. "I plan to continue monitoring such oversight to ensure that our taxpayer dollars are spent wisely," she said in a statement."

Do people still think of Susan Collins as one of the "good" Republicans? I hope not.

[Gloria]

6. I heard her this AM commenting on Chertoff....she was expressing

frustration about the delays to his coronation, saying that he's going to be confirmed ANYWAY....I hate that word, anyway--means we're not supposed to air the dirty laundry...

She sounds like a jerk when she talks.

[Old and In the Way]

7. I'm embarrassed to say she beat Chellie Pingree, head of Common Cause,

for re-election.

Collins is useless in Congress....I can't stand to listen to her either. She grates on me.

[ClarkUSA]

10. Susan Collins has become co-opted completely

She is no Olympia Snowe.

Who are the Democrats in Maine that they vote for someone as mealy-mouthed as Susan Collins?

[cosmicdot]

11. has Olympia seriously opposed the Republican agenda?

seems her votes and voice over the last 4 years have been just as dependable for them as Collins

[cosmicdot]

12. This article might be helpful to Collins ...

all of them need to be approached with how much longer are they going to cover and support the corruption and lies ....



Mom & Pop War Profiteering Team - Woolseys

By Evelyn Pringle
Miamisburg, Ohio
Scoop.co.nz
17 January 2005


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

The Defense Policy Board (DPB) is a hand-picked group of 30 people that advises Bush administration officials on matters such as whether and when to go to war, or not. The current group was selected by Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Douglas Feith, and approved by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Everyone who is anyone in the arms and defense industry knows that palling up to DPB members is the ticket to getting a Pentagon contract.

Shortly after the war in Iraq began, the April 10, 2003 New York Times pointed out that several board members stood to benefit financially from the war. It reported that the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) documented that 9 of the members were "linked to companies that have won more than $76 billion in defense contracts in 2001 and 2002."

Promote War & Garner Positions For Profits

One of the members mentioned who stood to profit was R. James Woolsey. In addition to being a member of the DPB, Woolsey also sits on Navy and CIA advisory boards; and he is also a founding member of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI), a private group that was specifically set up by Bush in 2002, to find ways to increase public support for a war against Iraq.

Let me say right here and now that I think bold lines are crossed when people like Woolsey, who promote a specific war, financially benefit from their successful promotion. There should be a law that requires a standard recusal from all war profits by any policy advisor who advocates sending our young men and women off to die in that same war.

And I don't know about anybody else, but I've never heard of our government forming a group of promoters to rally support for a war before. I dare anyone to try and convince me that this war profiteering scheme wasn't well planned and managed from the get-go.

Mom & Pop Team Of War Profiteers

I would rate the husband and wife team of James and Suzanne Woolsey up there as one of the most blatant examples of war profiting that I've ever seen. They both remain policy advisors on Iraq, even though they both work for private firms that do business there.

~snip~

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0501/S00107.htm

[despairing optimist]

8. Democratic Caucus ========> Democratic Ruckus

The room where everyone gets a chance to scream and not be nice!

[gratuitous]

13. Gee Dana, now why would that be?

I can't imagine why the Democrats are reduced to holding their own hearings in a little-used room in order to get something, anything before the public. Maybe if your newspaper and a couple of other papers, as well as an hour or so a day out of the electronic media's nonstop Republispew were interrupted for some responsible opposing viewpoints, this quaint and pathetic little show wouldn't need to go forward.

Instead, we get hours and hours of uninterrupted and unrebutted Faux, Rash, Brit, Michael, Lars and all the rest, to be balanced off by . . . Alan Colmes.

A real domescratcher there, Dana. Hard to figure out, isn't it? By the way, the tiny little area deep in your skull that kind of hurts right now? It's your brain. Pick up another paycheck and I'm sure the pain will go away.