Summoning up a storm
WASHINGTON — One day last week, the entire Federal Communications Commission was summoned for the first time in three years before a House committee, where its members were grilled for five hours and told to expect to be "frequent guests."
On another day, Congress authorized subpoenas for Justice Department officials in its escalating investigation into the murky reasons offered by the Bush administration for its decision to fire eight U.S. attorneys.
And on yet another day, former covert CIA operative Valerie Plame was the star witness at a hearing where she accused White House officials of "recklessly" blowing her cover and destroying her career.
Less than three months since they took control of Capitol Hill, Democrats in both chambers have cranked the powerful congressional oversight machinery into overdrive.
In addition to the headline-hogging investigations, Democrats have launched probes into a wide range of less glamorous subjects, including the FDA's efforts to protect the food supply, the way federal agencies monitor energy markets and whether the White House sought to muzzle federal climate scientists who uncovered evidence of global warming.
When Democrats won both houses of Congress in November, they promised vigorous oversight in addition to an ambitious legislative agenda. So far, they appear to be accomplishing more through oversight. None of the bills that were part of the party's 100-hour spree has yet emerged from Congress. And with their razor-thin margin in the Senate, Democrats cannot count on passing any legislation that most Republicans oppose.
But Republicans can do little to stop the investigative juggernaut.
"The Democrats' most powerful weapons aren't legislative bills, but subpoenas and hearings," said John J. Pitney Jr., a former Republican staffer who is a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College.
Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, neatly illustrated this dynamic in a recent letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
He wrote to ask why President Bush in his 2003 State of the Union address had cited a discredited claim that Iraq was seeking uranium. Waxman noted that Rice had ignored all but five of the 16 letters he had sent over the last five years when his party was in the minority. Then, he pointed out: "I am renewing my request as the chairman of the chief oversight committee in the U.S. House of Representatives."
