reality-based educator

James Wolcott writes in this post how the current meme running through Washington punditry is that Democrats must be very, very careful not to go TOO FAR with their oversight hearings. Wolcott calls this the "Tiptoe With The Tutus" movement:

Congressional Democrats ought to form their own ballet company--that's the counsel coming from the Washington sages this Sunday. When Democrats were in the minority, they were dismissed and mocked as ineffectual, irrelevant, and directionless. Now that Democrats chair committees and wield gavels, the Beltway punditry want them to rise on tiptoe and tread gingerly through the maze of mousetraps the pundits have scattered across the floor. From the ultimate concern troll to Egbert the Egghead to Noron today on Chris Matthews' show (that's Norah O'Donnell -- rbe), the message is that Democrats have to be "careful" not to "overreach" and "go too far." If I could trademark the phrase "The Democrats need to be careful...," I could retire in a few years to Cape May and build bat houses for needy bats. For six years we've had no Congressional oversight whatsoever over the rot and ruin of the Bush administration, and as soon as the first flexings of oversight are made, we get a plethora of Poloniuses dribbling advice (and as Saul Bellow reminded us, one of the nice things about Hamlet is that Polonius gets stabbed).

Wolcott notes that the elite punditry love to "wave those caution signs" whenever Democrats are concerned (or in power, for that matter) and make believe that all the oversight hearings they're holding are "nothing more than political hormones run riot and payback."

But as an anonymous Dem said in a Politico article a while back, every time they bark up a particular Bush administration tree with oversight hearings, they find a cat. The prosecutor purge scandal is widening under the scrutiny of both the press and Congressional oversight hearings. In the Plame hearings held by the House, we learned that one meme dispersed endlessly by wingers on the cable tee vee circuit - that Valerie Plame was NOT a covert agent - was finally laid to rest. We have learned in other hearings that Bush administration officials with clear ties to Exxon Mobil purposely edited government reports to minimize the seriousness of global warming. The Walter Reed scandal story, while broken by Dana Priest in the Washington Post, most likely would have died without a trace if the Republican Rubber Stamp Congress were still in power. Instead, high level military officials were held accountable for their roles in both the scandal and the cover-up (Mold? What Mold?)

So we can see that so far, Dems have not come close to overreaching in their oversight hearings. Rather, they are finding malfeasance, incompetence and/or criminal activity everywhere they look in the Bush government. And why not? After 6 years of little-to-no oversight by the Republican Rubber Stamp Congress, these folks in the Bush administration thought they could act illegally and/or unethically with impunity and the Republican Rubber Stampers would either ignore their activities or abet them.

So now we get to today's news in the Washington Post - Bush administration officials have been accused of politicizing the General Services Administration:

Witnesses have told congressional investigators that the chief of the General Services Administration and a deputy in Karl Rove's political affairs office at the White House joined in a videoconference earlier this year with top GSA political appointees, who discussed ways to help Republican candidates.

With GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan and up to 40 regional administrators on hand, J. Scott Jennings, the White House's deputy director of political affairs, gave a PowerPoint presentation on Jan. 26 of polling data about the 2006 elections.

When Jennings concluded his presentation to the GSA political appointees, Doan allegedly asked them how they could "help 'our candidates' in the next elections," according to a March 6 letter to Doan from Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Waxman said in the letter that one method suggested was using "targeted public events, such as the opening of federal facilities around the country."

On Wednesday, Doan is scheduled to appear before Waxman's committee to answer questions about the videoconference and other issues. The committee is investigating whether remarks made during the videoconference violated the Hatch Act, a federal law that restricts executive-branch employees from using their positions for political purposes. Those found in violation of the act do not face criminal penalties but can be removed from their jobs.

Waxman said in the letter that the remarks made during the videoconference have been confirmed by "multiple sources." Congressional investigators have taken statements from GSA employees and others in recent weeks.

The planned hearing is part of an expanding examination by Waxman's committee of Doan's tumultuous 10-month tenure as administrator of the GSA. The government's leading procurement agency annually handles about $56 billion worth of federal contracts.

The committee is also expected to question Doan about her attempt to give a no-bid job to a friend and professional associate last summer. In addition, the committee plans to look at Waxman's charge that Doan "intervened" in a troubled technology contract with Sun Microsystems that could cost taxpayers millions more than necessary.

In the Senate, Doan is facing a similar line of questioning in letters from Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). Also examining Doan are the GSA's Office of Inspector General and the independent federal Office of Special Counsel, which investigates allegations of Hatch Act violations.

The Ultimate Concern Troll and Eggbert the Egghead would prefer that Dems (and even a Republican like Charles Grassley) put on their tutus and tread carefully into investigations like this one. But if we have learned anything in the past eight weeks since Dems took power back from the Republican Rubber Stampers, whenever there is smoke surrounding Bush administration officials, there is fire as well.

Dems need to put away the tutus, ignore the elite punditocracy, and keep up the aggressive but fair oversight hearings. The oversight hearings and investigations are doing what they are supposed to do - keep the executive branch and members of the government accountable.