Wolf Howling: oversight

Friday, May 15, 2009

CIA Beginning The Drip

In either her second or third generation excuse for failing to take a stand against waterboarding when she was finally told about it (hey, if Pelosi can't keep this stuff straight, how do you expect me to), Pelosi claims that the CIA merely "notified" her of what the CIA was doing. Some oversight, eh? According to Speaker Pelosi, she didn't object because she was constrained, impotent, wholly unable to protest and with no avenue by which to register her abhorance.

It is being reported on Fox News tonight that in 2004, the Bush administration considered a secret CIA-run plan to counter Iran's meddling in Iraqi elections. Pelosi was briefed on the plan and strenuously objected. She personally hunted down Condi Rice and complained until it was agreed that the CIA would not conduct the operation. Thus it would seems that, on the issue of waterboarding, Pelosi's claim of the lack of any avenue through which to register her objection - a ludicrous proposition on its face - is also demonstrably false.

Now, I wonder . . . just how that story got out to the press. I'd give better than even odds that it originated somewhere in CIA headquarters at Langley. Let the leaking commence. I'm going to put on the popcorn and get a beer out of the fridge. This should be some first class entertainment.

Finally - Oversight

Democrats such as Barney Frank, Harry Reid, Chuckie Schumer and Chris Dodd actively resisted greater oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Now, with it all coming down around their - and our - ears, there finally will be some oversight.

The FBI is commencing investigations into Fannie and Freddie. Given that there was an ENRON style accounting scandal of deliberate fraud at Fannie Mae, given that Franklin Raines, Janet Reno and Jamie Goerlock pulled close to $200 million out of Fannie while leaving us a trillion dollar bill, it is about time that some oversight finally start to happen - and the fact that it is at the point of a gun is even better. It is years too late.

Swamp Monster

Nancy Pelosi led the fight in 2006 to take back Congress by promising to "drain the swamp" of corruption. Two years later, its clear that not only has Pelosi failed to drain the swamp, she's added more fetid water and the swamp's starting to produce monsters. The latest, Chairman of the ~~Black Lagoon~~ House Ways and Means Committee, Charlie Rangel. It seems that the man charged with oversight of our tax system has been taking notes on how to commit tax evasion. With November approaching and the gap between generic Dems and generic Republicans closing rapidly, Rep. Rangel's sins have even the NYT emitting swamp gas.
______________________________________________________

Revelations about Charlie Rangel's corruption have been coming fast and furious. First there was the misuse of rent stabilized apartment in Harlem, then the misuse of his official letterhead to raise funds, and now comes the news that Rangel has evaded taxes by failing to declare income on a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic. His excuse - that he did not understand the laws and got confused over the Spanish - is beyond laughable. Indeed, it is so bad that even the NYT Editorial Board is asking Speaker Pelosi to remove Rangel - preferably long before November:

Mounting embarrassment for taxpayers and Congress makes it imperative that Representative Charles Rangel step aside as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee while his ethical problems are investigated.

. . . Mr. Rangel himself has felt obliged to request three separate House ethics inquiries of his behavior. While denying serious improprieties, Mr. Rangel concedes that he has not lived up to the “higher standard” expected of members of Congress.

His latest admission is that as chief of Congress’s tax-writing committee, he was “irresponsible” in failing to disclose $75,000 in rental income and pay federal and state taxes on a villa in the Dominican Republic.

His temporary yielding of the gavel is an urgent necessity for a Democratic Congress elected two years ago on promises of an ethical housecleaning. The villa dealings only add momentum to the investigations of two earlier controversies — Mr. Rangel’s favored treatment in occupying four rent-stabilized apartments in Manhattan, and his improper use of official letterheads to solicit support from charities and corporations for an academic center to memorialize his career in public service.

Mr. Rangel has hurt his case with clumsy, combative pleas of ignorance of the facts and law involving his Dominican villa. “We do make errors, even though we consider ourselves experts in terms of tax policy for the nation,” said the lawmaker, who has three decades’ experience on Ways and Means.

His excuse of “cultural and language barriers” with Dominican officials was, simply, offensive. “Every time I thought I was getting somewhere, they’d start speaking Spanish,” complained Mr. Rangel.

At the least, the disclosures betray that gross sense of entitlement that regularly befalls politicians. . . .

The powerful congressman has enjoyed his rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem — improperly using one as a campaign office — at about half market value. This is a $30,000-a-year boon, and the ethics committee must decide whether it amounts to a gift from a politically savvy landlord that would violate House rules. The panel must also weigh how badly Mr. Rangel violated official letterhead restrictions.

As a new Congress approaches with a thick docket of fiscal and tax measures, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi must see that no cloud hangs over Ways and Means while the chairman is under investigation. The Democratic majority arrived last year promising to “drain the swamp” of corruption epitomized by the previous Republican majority’s quid-pro-quo dealings with Jack Abramoff, the now-imprisoned superlobbyist.

Committee posts are not bestowed by voters. They are partisan privileges granted by leaders in Congress, and Ms. Pelosi must not cut slack for an ally. If Mr. Rangel refuses a temporary hiatus from his chairmanship, Ms. Pelosi should remove him permanently.

Read the entire article. There isin't a chance in hell that Rep. Rangel will step down, and only a slighter greater chance that Pelosi will force him to step down. The hubris of the left is massive and, the truth is, Demorcratic voters rarely hold their elected leaders to account for their missteps. Then again, its the voters in the middle who are going to be paying close attention this time around. Even the NYT gets that.