A Step Back In Time With Henry Waxman

I understand some of the skepticism around an American Spectator report on Henry Waxman launching investigations into private citizens who are also conservative radio hosts - see Allah for example. But also take a quick look at two items linked below.

I’m torn. On the one hand, I wouldn’t put it past him. On the other hand, this comes from the Prowler, which has an amazing knack — which I’ve noticed before — for squeezing hypercynical, Snidely Whiplash-ish comments out of unnamed Democrats revealing their sinister political motives. Try this one on for size:

Who wrote one of the pieces below, some ultra-conservative radio talk show host? Nope, the words inquisitor, Elliot Ness and investigatory zeal directed (only) at conservatives aren't from Rush Limbaugh, they're courtesy of Time as the Liberal Democrat establishment was celebrating their victory at the polls in 2006. Waxman has been in DC since 1974, arriving as part of the Class of 74, the so-called Watergate Babies.

Indeed, it was remarkable how easily much of this class adapted to Washington. They took generous campaign money. They bounced checks at the House bank. They became part of a system they had vowed to change when their hair was longer and their commitment deeper. ... seduced by money and Washington perks, the Watergate Babies eventually were co-opted by the system. ... The Class of '74 cut its political teeth as opponents of the Vietnam War, ... in the name of democratization, the Class of '74 created anarchy, ... As a result, they created a power vacuum that would be filled over the next decade by strong committee chairmen such as Ways & Means boss Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.). ... The Class of '74's legacy was a campaign-finance reform law that created the very political action committees that many see as the root of today's ills.

Quotes below from the Time piece on Waxman, who, just like disgraced former lawmaker Dan Rostenkowski was before him, a Watergate Baby holding one of the very powerful committee chairmanships within a system he helped to create. Finally, some would instinctively argue that 33 years in Washington might be just a tad too long for a member of any political party dedicated to representing the people, as opposed to a skewed and purely-political Inside the Beltway Democrat Party agenda.

... there's a new contender for the title of Scariest Guy in Town. He stands 5 ft. 5, speaks softly and has all the panache of your parents' dentist. But when it comes to putting powerful people on the hot seat, there's no one tougher and more tenacious than veteran California Congressman Henry Waxman. ... Waxman fashioned himself as his party's chief inquisitor. Working with one of the most highly regarded staffs on Capitol Hill, he has spent the past eight years churning out some 2,000 headline-grabbing reports,...

Come January, however, the man that the liberal Nation magazine once called the "Eliot Ness of the Democrats" can do even more, thanks to the two words that strike fear in the heart of every government official: subpoena power.

As the new chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, Waxman will have free rein to investigate, as he puts it, "everything that the government is involved with."

the leader of Government Reform is the only chairman who can issue subpoenas without a committee vote.

Opponents have noted that Waxman is hardly an equal-opportunity muckraker. Republicans and industry groups say his investigatory zeal is limited to conservative targets: he spent the Clinton years trying to fend off congressional investigations, including the ones into the White House's questionable campaign fund-raising practices, and once led a Democratic walkout when Republicans released a report on the firing of White House travel-office workers. While Waxman promises what he calls oversight, the Republicans say it'll be more like a witch hunt,

In 1994, as chairman of the health and environment subcommittee, he lined up the chief executives of the nation's biggest tobacco companies, had them raise their right hands and then shredded them as finely as their own products. His hearings helped pave the way for the lawsuits that followed, which led to a landmark $246 billion legal settlement with the industry.

Comments

[DANEgerus]

In the case of "flaccid subpoena" Waxman(D)... you really can judge a book by it's cover. Or in this case, a hater by his nostrils. He specializes in McCarthiesque show trials where he bullies people into appearing before his kangaroo court, limits witnesses for their defense, and berates them in his search for sound-bites.

The proof that he is evil? Where are the prosecutions? All those trials and no prosecutions? The chief inquisitor's intent is only to bully.

[AJB]

That would all be really damning if it were true:

http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1532