Republican Senator says they delegated too much authority to Executive

[kentuck]

Branch. He also stated that they have never reached the competency level of the Democrats in overseeing the vast federal bureaucracy. What a revelation! As if we didn't already know that the Repubs were incompetent.
=====================================================
<snip>
“We Republicans have never quite reached the level of competent oversight that the Democrats developed over their 40 years that they controlled Congress,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the Senate Finance Committee chairman and one of the few Republicans to pepper the administration regularly with inquiries. “We tried to emphasize legislating, and we’ve delegated so much authority to the executive branch of government, and we ought to devote more time to oversight than we do.”

<snip>
Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee wrote Chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) in November seeking hearings on the new “No Child Left Behind” law. But no hearing has occurred. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee has conducted oversight of the new Homeland Security Department, but much of its work has been on consumer issues, such as an attention-grabbing hearing on “diploma mills.”

When oversight and hearings do occur, the results aren’t always as enlightening as they could be. At the Senate Armed Services hearings, each of 25 members on the panel got a brief chance to query Rumsfeld. But it was hard for any of them to pursue a line of questioning. Staff weren’t allowed to ask follow-up questions — as they were allowed to do in the Watergate hearings.

“This is a travesty that you get six minutes, and call that ‘advise and consent,’” Kennedy said. “In too many instances, the Congress has yielded too many of its prerogatives to the executive.”

[NMDemDist2]

1. rats from a sinking ship hehehehe eom

[aquart]

2. Yuh think?

Why don't they just send the rubberstamp over to the White House and eliminate the middle man?

[revcarol]

6. The ink for the rubber stamp is the blood of our young military men

women and the blood of our elderly and the blood of our inadequately educated children.

Can't have a rubber stamp without ink.

[IkeWarnedUs]

3. Link? n/t

[kentuck]

17. OOps....Sorry, here is link...

http://www.thehill.com/news/051304/oversight.aspx

[ibegurpard]

4. Sorry Grassley.

The time for that speech was two years ago. You can hang with the rest of the fuckers.

[Doctor_J]

5. the neocons want to

shrink the government to a level where even Smirk could run it. Unfortunately, the country NEEDS defense, infrastructure, foreign relations, clean air and water, oversight of Big Business, health care, and other sundry basics. What we have is a lazy frat boy "in charge" of a bunch of corrupt crooks.

[annagull]

7. Kennedy's right, that hearing was a waste of time

How the hell do you advise and consent with only 5 minutes? I guess the repukes in the Senate are finally realizing they have legislated themselves into irrelevancy.

[Old and In the Way]

13. "legislated themselves into irrelevancy."

Exactly. They enabled this incompetent administration by not doing their job. I hope they are rewarded appropriately by the American electorate in November.

[TacticalPeek]

8. Derelection of duty.

Link?

[FlemingsGhost]

9. Excuses, excuses, excuses... Good news, really.

The "War President" is fucked. Morale is low and his own lieutenants are beginning to breaking rank.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

10. You mean they abdicated their responsibility under the US constitution?

Then they should resign..Grassley should go first since he is the first to admit he violated the oath he took when he took office.

[DrBB]

11. "Delegated" it? As in

..."Bush and his unelected adminstration came in and seized every shred of power they could lay their hands on"? That's "delegating"?

[Lex]

12. I guess the formerly smug jerks

with their lips on Bush's ass, have been looking at Bush's disapproval numbers.

They didn't just grow a conscience. I'm not falling for that BS.

[seabeyond]

14. whether you buy it or not doesnt matter

it was said out loud, by a republican. that matters.

[keithyboy]

15. "delegated?" More like "abdicated"

They are not good at oversight because they hate it. they hate rules, regulations, and spend too much time "looking the other way" and trying circumbent goverment regulations in order to give their big donors special favors. Dems are not better, they just do it...and even then many Dems don't do a good job. I use to work in the Federal government. Most of the rank workers try to do an honest public service job. However, when a peon discovers abuses and mismanagement (usually by some political appointee or their staffs) they peon usually gets the shaft. The will do everything in their power to shut the person up from labeling them "crazy", incompetent, to demoting or actually firing the person. Just like the prisoner scandal. The people being smeared are the ones who brought the abuse public. Notice how the Pentagon ignored the many reports of abuse from Amnesty International and the Red Cross.
Had it not been for the photos, the American public would never have known. The answer to the question "Why do they hate us?" Is because of what we DO!! The Iraqis and Islamics know what we have been doing to them. It's only the American public that has been kept in the dark. And most of them don't really want to see the truth.

[kodi]

16. rome, 44bc

.