Sifting Through the "Muck"

There is going to need to be an investigation - perhaps several investigations - into the pre-planning (or lack thereof) and response to Hurricane Katrina. I mentioned earlier that the Senate Government Affairs Committee, under the fine leadership of Senators Collins and Lieberman, will be conducting an inquiry. And then there's that one that the president says he'll be leading personally ... which I have none of the same confidence in ...

And then yesterday House Speaker Denny Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist went before the cameras and announced that - for the first time since Iran-Contra - there will be a bipartisan joint House/Senate committee formed to investigate the actions and inactions in the wake of Katrina. One problem with that: looks like somebody forgot to tell the Democrats. Now, this might have been a very good way to promote decent, bipartisan cooperation and get something real and meaningful done. But Hastert and Frist just rolled ahead with this announcement without consultation with their minority counterparts, and as we all know, that's hardly likely to bring about a positive response.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she only learned of the plans for a House/Senate joint committee on the news, and said that unless the investigating committee was "truly bipartisan" (with membership equally divided between the parties) and armed with enough power to be effective, she would refuse to appoint any members of her caucus. Pelosi: "Let's not have a charade. Despite all the talk about bipartisanship, they have just on their own initiative put forward a proposal that will result in a whitewash. This Congress has consistently avoided any oversight of the administration, and they want to follow the same formula."

The response from Senator Harry Reid wasn't much more positive; he said of the planned committee "An investigation of the Republican Administration by a Republican-controlled Congress is like having a pitcher call his own balls and strikes" and "Democrats strongly prefer that the response to Hurricane Katrina be investigated by a commission of independent experts like the 9/11 commission."

Like I said, this could have been a great opportunity for bipartisan cooperation and consensus. What the heck was stopping Hastert and Frist from calling up Pelosi and Hastert and coming up with a joint committee, with teeth, that could get to the bottom of things? Pure political silliness. While I would still have had concerns about any congressional committee investigating actions in which Congress did also play a role, a truly bipartisan, joint investigatory body might have been sufficient.

In light of the way this has been handled by the Republican leadership in the Congress, I have no choice but to join calls for an independent commission to investigate government's failures (and the successes) at all levels and hold those who screwed up accountable.