Catch-22: Is supporting the resolution failing the troops?

By: Andrea Chamblee
Published On: 2/21/2007 12:24:11 PM

Cross posted on Beltway Progressive.

Do you have questions for the Republicans on the Iraq War?

Now that our closest allies, the British, have announced they are phasing out their troop presence in Iraq, this war unquestionably belongs to the Bush administration and the Republicans who covered for them. The chief of the cover up is Tom Davis (R-VA), who put the Government Reform Committee on a strict diet of salt peter during his reign from 1998 through 2006. The absurdity of the actions of Davis's committee, whereby subjects of investigations could hire Davis's wife to prepare them for an investigation in which Davis could ask planted questions or prohibit questions altogether, is captured deep in the transcripts for the Committee.
Davis cites the Hurricane Katrina investigation as proof he was on the job.  But clearly he was not.  He limited the hearing and the questions. The most quoted example of planted questions involves the disaster and Carnival Cruise lines, a Florida company with ties to Presidential brother Jeb Bush, Florida governor.  Carnival won a no-bid contract for providing housing for displaced Louisiana natives aboard their ships after Hurricane Katrina in amounts that exceeded the costs for providing a full luxury cruise. The ships remained more than half empty.  Davis did not subpeona the company but had a friendly hearing on the no-bid, $236 million contract (including $44 million in expenses). When the VP of Marketing, Terry Thorton, testified how Carnival got the profitable award, Davis asked such planted questions as this one:

"You didn't seek the government contract. The government came to you, basically, with a solicitation."

"That's correct," Thorton replied.

This was not a question. Furthermore, it was not true. Democrats found emails to prove it.

Back to the present, it is long past time to challenge the President on the Iraq War.  Despite Davis's insistence that those who do so are guilty of treason (should they be hanged for it?), demanding that your country produce compelling reasons for sending people to die is patriotic, too.

How has your representative responded to your questions? The challenges to the war allowed by the Republicans are as meaningful as the challenges from Davis's Oversight Committee, and as absurd as this Q&A:

Group Headquarters was alarmed, for there was no telling what people might find out once they were free to ask whatever questions they wanted to. Colonel Cathcart sent Colonel Korn to stop it, and Colonel Korn succeeded with a rule governing the asking of questions. Colonel Korn's rule was a stroke of genius, Colonel Korn explained in his report to Colonel Cathcart. Under Colonel Korn's rule, the only people permitted to ask questions were those who never did. Soon the only people attending were those who never asked questions, and the sessions were discontinued altogether, since Clevinger, the corporal and Colonel Korn agreed that it was neither possible nor necessary to educate people who never questioned anything.
Another Catch-22.

Comments



Andrea - is that your blog??? (Rob - 2/21/2007 12:35:07 PM)
Should be on our blogroll!


Beltway Progressive applied to LeftyBlogs (Andrea Chamblee - 2/21/2007 3:10:14 PM)
But I have to be blogging for some time (I think it's two months) to get on. Then they require bloggers to pick a single state, even if they are in a tri-state area like ours.

Thanks a lot!



Hey Andrea--Tom Davis Has Been Skewered on Americablog (PM - 2/21/2007 9:30:11 PM)
http://americablog.b...


Democrats Do Not Like Tom Davis: What Irony! (Citizen Tom - 2/21/2007 9:54:34 PM)
I have little use for Congressman Tom Davis, but RK blaming him for what is going on in Iraq is ironic. Because our foes perceive us as weakly committed, they continue to fight.  Thus any complaints from Democrats about Tom Davis are preposterous.  That probably explains why you spent so much time talking about Katrina instead of Iraq.

The reason this war has been so going on so long is that the people who voted for it have not backed their words with deeds.  Two Conservatives has nice post (http://twoconservati...) on this, and I have a few myself.  Check this one (http://citizentom.co...).



Thanks for the chance to explain (Andrea Chamblee - 2/22/2007 12:54:51 AM)
Our foes continue to fight because we lack leadership and purpose, and because we have spent more on overhead to set up by Tom Davis than we did on our own troops. That's not just me talking, it's the bi-partisian Commission that studied the issue.

Davis used his position to make sure Waxman's requests for investigations of the fraud were ignored by the Oversight Committee.

Before being elected to Congress, Davis worked as a lawyer and lobbyist at PRC Inc., a military technology contractor, so he knows how the process works, and how to make it work even better for shady contractors. Davis was instrumental in assuring the checks on defense contracts, and contracts with the Interior Dept (Jack Abramoff) were eliminated in exchange for campaign contributions.  Davis was on watch when the war was outsourced with "Cost-Plus" contracts which paid contractors whatever they spent no matter how wasteful, plus profit, making that waste an actual incentive.  Davis established two new programs, "Share in Savings," and "Federal Acquisition Regulations." Again, not just me talking; Davis takes credit for both these programs.

After leading campaign fundraising efforts for House Republicans in 2002, Davis promptly elevated the concerns of corporate contractors to the top of the agenda. He pushed legislation to ease oversight rules, expanding, among other things, the exemption from holding open competitions for many services. Davis' staff held "drafting summits" with contractors to produce the bill. Leaked drafts of the legislation revealed that trade groups had suggested specific sections.