Riptide of Investigations (Waxman)

[babylonsister]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0207/2638.html

Riptide of Investigations

By: Andrew Glass
February 5, 2007 09:51 PM EST

Armed with newfound investigative powers, the Democratic congressman from 90210 is on a roll.

On Tuesday, Rep. Henry A. Waxman, whose district takes in the multimillion-dollar mansions of Beverly Hills, will probe the effort to rebuild a shattered Iraq in the wake of the U.S-led invasion, an effort that by any measure has gone terribly awry.

That's just for starters. Over the following three days, the newly renamed House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which Waxman chairs, will successively focus on:

-- Big-time government contractors, who Waxman claims have emerged as a "shadow government" under a lax Bush administration. Scheduled witnesses include top executives of Blackwater USA, a private military contractor and security firm, and KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, the parent firm once headed by Vice President Cheney.

-- An ambitious program to gain more control over the U.S-Mexican border via high-tech tools. The controversial project, known as SBINet, has emerged as a top priority for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

-- Allegations of waste, fraud and abuse in the health care field and the pharmaceutical industries. These are already under heavy scrutiny in the Democratic-led Congress on issues ranging from Medicare outlays to marketing tactics to drug safety.

Tuesday's hearing is likely to generate sparks when L. Paul Bremer III, who headed the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) within Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, takes the witness stand in Room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building. While Congress remained under Republican control, Bremer faced few tough questions about the opening phase of the reconstruction effort in Iraq, which has since been widely assailed as ineffective, politically driven and riddled with waste.

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[tavalon]

1. Good!

[POAS]

2. Think they will address Bremer as

Viceroy?

[Old and In the Way]

3. A target rich environment, as they say.

When he shoots, I hope he doesn't hit Dick in the face...but it will be hard to miss, IMHO.