of "Brownie"?
Except for William Jefferson (D-NOLA) and perhaps a couple of Dems from MS and AL, all the questioners on the "Select Committee" are Republicans. This is a sham. When Brown told Shays he'd asked the WH for help and did not get it, and when he told another Rethug his budget request for catastrophic relief capacity had been zeroed out, no one pounced. They would have been pouncing on themselves!
Pelosi, Slaughter, Thompson, Menendez, and the NY Times are right--only an independent commission can thoroughly investigate a WH that controls both houses of Congress.
From
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/09-05/09-22-05/a02wn230.htm :
"House GOP moves ahead on Katrina response probe
By AMY GOLDSTEIN, The Washington Post
WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., Wednesday named 11 GOP lawmakers to the remnants of what Congress's Republican leaders originally had intended as a bipartisan investigation, conducted jointly by both halves of Congress, into flaws in the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. With Democrats boycotting the probe and the leader of Senate's Republicans acquiescing to their complaints by not appointing any members, the select commitee is scheduled to begin work Thursday as a creation solely of House Republicans.
The committee's chairman, Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., said that the panel plans Tuesday to question Michael Brown... The members are an eclectic group, including lawmakers with oversight responsibility, expertise in appropriations, responsibility for overseeing FEMA, and close relationships with the House GOP leadership. They range from Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., a moderate to Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., known for his strong style. One of the 11, Rep. Charles W. "Chip" Pickering, R-Miss., come from any of the three states devasted by the storm.
House and Senate Democrats swiftly derided the idea, saying that a GOP-led Congress could not be trusted to carry out a thorough investigation of mistakes by a Republican administration. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Wednesday renewed the Democrat's calls for an independent commission, similar to the one that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks -- a proposal that polls suggest most of the public supports. "The speaker is not listening to the American people," she said. "They do not want a partisan whitewash of what went wrong in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina ... I will not appoint any Democrats to participate in this sham."
Davis said, "This isn't some partisan cover-up." He dispatched letters to three House Democrats from affected states who have signaled that they may be willing to participate; one of them, Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., plans to attend Thursday, an aide said. And Davis urged the Senate to collaborate. A separate investigation into Katrina has been started by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, whose chairman, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has said she would be reluctant to coordinate with the House select committee unless it is bipartisan. Meanwhile, President Bush has announced that his homeland security adviser, Fran Townsend, will direct an internal investigation into the federal response to Katrina, as well as coordinate the administration's response to Hurricane Rita. Davis said the House investigation would proceed, with or without Democrats."
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
