TPM Muckraker: House GOP Spending Chief Axes Investigative Staff

[Coexist]

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001845.php

The investigators were contract workers, brought on to handle the extraordinary level of fraud investigations facing the panel. Sixteen permanent investigative staff are staying on, according to CQ. More:

Lewis’ decision “has in fact stalled all of the investigations on the staff,” said one of the contractors, a former FBI agent, who asked not to be identified. “This eviscerates the investigatory function. There is little if any ability to do any oversight now.”
. . .

“In effect, no investigative function is going to be done,” said the contractor, who called the decision “misguided.”

“This staff has saved billions and billions of dollars, we’ve turned up malfeasance and misfeasance,” the contractor said. “It’s results justify the expense of the staff. I have no idea why the chairman would do this.”

The article originates at Congressional Quarterly and requires a subscription.

This is all so surreal, now. Things are unraveling fast.

[annabanana]

1. "I have no idea why the chairman would do this."

Aw C'mon Mr. Contractor... Use your imagination....

[originalpckelly]

10. If this wasn't because of corruption...

I might say that is the reason he was fired. But this is so obviously STUPID! I mean just from a political perspective it is the dumbest thing I have ever seen.

[Richard Steele]

17. I don't see it as "stupid" so much as DESPERATE.

There are lots of crooks in the world; the STUPID ones
don't get to where Lewis is.
He has to KNOW just how bad this looks. He wouldn't have
done it unless he felt he had no other choice.
He ran out of ways to conceal the truth, so he
fired the investigators.

I recall a fellow named Nixon did the same thing once;
it really didn't help much.

And, this isn't the ONLY desperately slimy move he's connected to
this week!

The State's Prosecutor who was in charge of investigating him
just unexpectedly quit her Gov job thursday...
to take a job with HIS defense attorneys' law firm.

With an up-front 200 THOU$AND DOLLAR "signing bonus".

Gee, that doesn't just SCREAM "crooked" or nuthin', does it? :sarcasm:

[Hugin]

2. Yup, it's a scorched earth policy...

I'm seeing it all over the place.

It's going to get ugly, real ugly.

The Martial Law Bill was the tip of the iceberg.

[Gabi Hayes]

3. Wash Journal this AM had the reporter who's doing a big investo

on Jerry Lewis.

I didn't hear any comment on this, but I was half asleep.

I wonder if CQ has any reason given for letting all these investigators go.

Lewis looks to be in big trouble over the story the reporter's going after; he seems convinced that the shoe is going to drop on Lewis in the not too distant future

[Coexist]

5. Really... how very interesting -

I'll have to catch the re-broadcast.

[Gabi Hayes]

7. he was paired with the guy who broke the Cunningham story

that guy discovered the whole thing by checking real estate transactions, btw, and saw Cunningham had bought a 2.5 million dollar house, thought it was unusual, then traced the sale of his old house back to an company titled with an address in DC!

he then found out it was MZM, or whatever it was called, and ended up with Mitchell Wade. thing is, ANYBODY could have done it, cause it was all on the innertubes!

I tried to call in and ask him why he can't do a story on Duncan Hunter, cause he's got the same thing going on with his home sale

[Coexist]

8. simple paper trails - and what havoc they wreak

It just takes someone with media access to look.

[annabanana]

4. This is so damned funny. . .

"Lewis' spokesman, John Scofield, told CQ that such complaints were "sour grapes," and assured the publication that "there is nothing sinister going on."

Nope, nothing to see here, run along now.

[Coexist]

6. I know

how many bombshells can one party take?

[radfringe]

9. I have no idea why the chairman would do this

...finding tooooo much fraud and misfeasance and mostly by the "wrong" party

DUH!!! it was all suppose to be blamed on the other guys...

[badgerpup]

12. So...how are they going to blame Clinton for THIS one?

They've tried it for just about everything else...:eyes:

[radfringe]

13. according to some woman on calling in on WJ

it's clinton's fault for "lowering the standards of morality by having an affair"

[badgerpup]

14. Oh dear gods...PLEASE tell me you're joking.

That was :sarcasm:, really it was!! :banghead:

Does she really expect people to believe that nobody ELSE in Washington DC has EVER had an affair or been unfaithful until the Big Dawg?
:sarcasm: :eyes:

[radfringe]

15. no - not joking n/t

[KoKo]

11. Need to kick this up to Front Page or at least Greatist!

Kick!

[Disturbed]

16. Waxman and Conyers are going to blow the Busholini Regime

wide open. Scandals? We have only grazed the iceburg.