Probes could put damper on Bush race

[wyldwolf]

WASHINGTON -- Nearly a dozen congressional inquiries, judicial reviews and formal investigations have the potential to change the race for the White House.

By month's end, the Senate Intelligence Committee is due to report the findings of its 10-month inquiry into the Bush administration's collection and use of intelligence information during the lead-up to the war against Iraq.

On April 27, the Supreme Court will hear arguments over Vice President Dick Cheney's efforts to keep secret the consultations he had with oil company executives and others as he developed White House energy policy three years ago.

The Justice Department and the Pentagon are looking into allegations that a subsidiary of the Halliburton Co., formerly run by Cheney, overcharged $60 million for fuel supplied to U.S. forces in Iraq. Halliburton has denied the allegations.

Later this spring, President Bush is expected to sit in the Oval Office and respond to questions from members of a congressional commission looking into whether the administration did all it could to prevent the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The panel will report its findings July 26.

"These investigations and commissions are kind of a form of political water torture. They just keep drip, drip, dripping," said Paul Light, professor of public service at New York University.

"The general effect would be just kind of creating a news stream that reminds the public that, in fact, the administration is having all kinds of problems," Light said. "That contributes to public concerns about Bush's credibility, which is the big fault line in his campaign."

After Bush attended a rodeo last week in Houston, his presumptive Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, took aim at the White House position that Bush would limit his testimony before the Sept. 11 Commission to a single hour of questioning by just two of the panel's 10 members.

"If the president of the United States can find time to go to a rodeo," Kerry said, "he can spend more than one hour before the commission."
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/election/0304nation/14issues.html

[gristy]

1. I look forward to this. Just 5 weeks away. Front page stuff every day.

And who is it on NPR who skillfully describes the action in court? She's going to be great.

On April 27, the Supreme Court will hear arguments over Vice President Dick Cheney's efforts to keep secret the consultations he had with oil company executives and others as he developed White House energy policy three years ago.

And, what is it with the AJC? All these stories this weekend critical of bush and/or pointing out his troubles? Who reads this paper regularly? Is this a big change?

[ThomWV]

2. One Can Only Hope

One can only hope that there is public attention, which is to say media coverage, of these things as they unfold. To many the charge is as good as the crime and if they were aware that, for instance, that the office of the Vice President is being investigated not only for selling out to oil interests in establishing its energy policy but something much more important. It seems that another inquiry is about to point directly at the Vice President's office in a case of treason in the Plame affair. So even if the results of these on going inquirys hold the administration blameless, which certainly isn't likely, at least the attention they draw will show that corruption, or the appearance of it, is rife in the administration. Can't hurt us a bit either way they go.

[Moderator]

3. wyldwolf

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