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Hey everybody...Congress has BASEBALL FEVER!
Personally, I'm sick of it already. So let me see if I can at least make some kind of hay out of it.
Last Sunday on `Meet the Press,' Tim Russert tore into steroid abuse like a dog tearing into an unattended bag of Kibbles and Bits. He was jammin'...throwing fastballs with tough follow-up questions. In other words, he was doing his job well...and reminding us of how poorly he does it much of the time.
So I got an idea. An exercise in "what if..." The result of that idea is below the fold.
The premise: What if Tim Russert had grilled Rep. Henry Waxman and Rep. Tom Davis of the Government Reform Committee about the very real ethics and other abuses in the GOP-led Congress? What would real journalism---and real bipartisanship leadership---look like? So I took the transcript from last Sunday and replaced "baseball" with "GOP/Republican congress," and "players" with "Congressmen/leaders." I altered as little as possible, but did trim for length.
A boy can dream, can't he? Read on...
Satire: A `Meet the Press' segment we'd like to see...
MR. RUSSERT: And we are back and joined by the two congressmen who will lead hearings this week into ethics violations by Republicans in the House: Chairman Tom Davis, ranking Democrat Henry Waxman Welcome both.
REP. HENRY WAXMAN, (D-CA): Thank you.
REP. TOM DAVIS, (R-VA): Thank you.
MR. RUSSERT: Chairman Davis, you have subpoenaed major leaders in the GOP-led congress. How many are showing up?
REP. DAVIS: We expect them all to show up.
MR. RUSSERT: All?
REP. DAVIS: We expect them to. That's what the subpoenas--now we're going to meet and there may be one who gets an excuse here or there, but we expect them all to be or we're ready to vote out of contempt resolution.
MR. RUSSERT: Vote a contempt of Congress resolution out of the committee?
REP. DAVIS: Absolutely. These people are not above the law. You know, they may fly in private planes and make millions of dollars, but a subpoena is exactly what it says it is. They have to appear.
MR. RUSSERT: Will it be approved by the committee?
REP. DAVIS: Of course.
MR. RUSSERT: And it will then go to the full House?
REP. DAVIS: Correct. I expect it to be approved by a very wide margin there.
MR. RUSSERT: How wide?
REP. DAVIS: Very wide, 350, 375 votes.
MR. RUSSERT: In favor of contempt of Congress?
REP. DAVIS: Of course.
MR. RUSSERT: Do you agree?
REP. WAXMAN: Well, that's what it could ultimately come to, but I hope it doesn't because I think it's important to have an investigation of ethics violations. To me the shocking thing is that the GOP leadership doesn't seem to have been much concerned about all the stories about their members over the last 10 years. We shouldn't be doing these hearings. They should have been doing these hearings and for a number of reasons. One, the integrity of the government is at stake, but from my point of view, the most serious problem is that it permeates to our kids that violating the law is socially acceptable and they're under a competitive disadvantage if they don't do it. So if you look at the last 10 years, it used to be one out of every 45 kids did not trust the Republican party. Now, it's one out of 16. That's 500,000 kids. That's a real serious threat to their sense of civic responsibility. And it's also a message that lying is acceptable.
MR. RUSSERT: Would you agree with Chairman Davis, if the GOP leaders do not show up, both the committee and the full House will hold them in contempt of Congress?
REP. WAXMAN: Well, we'll have no other choice but to pursue the ability to enforce our subpoenas, but I hope it doesn't come to that.
MR. RUSSERT: An attorney for the Republicans is saying that this is beyond your committee's authority and that it is prying into the privacy of these leaders.
REP. WAXMAN: Well, we wrote a---Chairman Davis and I wrote an extensive letter, explaining to him why it was within the jurisdiction of our committee. The rules provide for it, but if you just look at the fact that they're violating the ethics laws, which Congress passed, they're violating the House's own rules against lying and cheating and yet lying and cheating is increasing. We ought to find out at the minimum why federal laws aren't being enforced adequately or what changes in the law ought to be made. That alone justifies our jurisdiction.
But what strikes me is that the Republicans don't want to investigate themselves and they don't want us to investigate them. It seems to me that they've had a "don't know, don't tell" policy for the last 10 years. They said that there's a problem but they don't know who's involved, how it happened, but they're going to put something in place that will fix it. In your business, when CBS made a serious mistake about President Bush's service record, they changed their policy but they did it after they had an independent investigation. The Republicans in Congress don't want any investigation of this issue.
MR. RUSSERT: Chairman Davis, in terms of the people who have been subpoenaed, why Tom Delay?
REP. DAVIS: Well, he's been named. I mean, they have been accused by former colleagues of having misled the American people. In one case, we've had Republicans who have said they want to be able to come up and set the record straight. But there have been public accusations about these leaders. They've set radical agendas. There is, I think, a widespread feeling that maybe they cheated their way to achieving these agendas by fraud.
MR. RUSSERT: Will every Republican that's called be given immunity from prosecution?
REP. DAVIS: No.
REP. WAXMAN: But the important point is not any one congressman. The important point is the widespread use of deception by Republicans and others, and what changes in the law we might need and how we can stop this signal to the kids that they have to lie and cheat to be a leader and get elected to congress. High school kids are told if they want to win, they better lie.
MR. RUSSERT: Who says that?
REP. WAXMAN: Well, that's the whole lineup. If your leaders lie, you're at a competitive disadvantage. If you're in college, you want to go into public service, you feel like you have to lie. And then high school kids are--get the sense that if they want scholarships, to be good leaders, they better lie and deceive. It forces them. It's a pressure on them. And then on the other side of it is it becomes socially acceptable. The GOP-led congress has made it acceptable for people to use deception to enhance their performance, which also means they're cheating in order to win.
MR. RUSSERT: How widespread do you think this problem is?
REP. DAVIS: Well, there's no question it's been very widespread.
MR. RUSSERT: Are you satisfied with the new GOP policy put in place for the ethics committee?
REP. DAVIS: Not at all. I mean, we don't know what the policy is. We've asked for it two weeks ago and we have yet to receive it. The subpoena calls for their delivery on Monday at noon. And I think we'll have more to say after we see it.
REP. WAXMAN: That's one of the subjects of the hearing. The House says they have a new policy. Well, I've heard through the grapevine that some people think you have to be an idiot to ever get caught under that new policy. This business of saying that they have a consent decree and that's the reason we should understand that they didn't do anything strikes me as ridiculous.
MR. RUSSERT: What authority does your committee have? Could you look into Hollywood, the music business? How widespread do you feel you can go?
REP. DAVIS: Rule 10, Clause 4C2 gives us the ability to hold a hearing on any matter at any time. We're the major investigatory committee of Congress. We don't abuse it. We didn't issue any subpoenas for the last two years. Henry and I worked together in a bipartisan fashion to decide what we'll do. But this is a serious problem. Kids are losing faith from the use of unethical tactics in Congress. They're looking up to these leaders in terms of the tactics that they're using. And we have to stop it.
MR. RUSSERT: We'll be watching. Chairman Tom Davis, ranking member Henry Waxman, thank you very much.
REP. WAXMAN: Thank you.
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