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Today's Must Read
It's easy to get distracted in our workaday lives and lose sight of the big picture.
For instance, Mike Allen of the Politico reports that the White House recently passed "an unusual landmark": the administration has produced 1 million documents to Congress since January. The mind can scarcely comprehend the horrors of such unbridled oversight.
The details of this "unusual landmark" are unclear. Characteristic of a White House that has successfully stonewalled a number of key Congressional investigations while still managing to complain about responding to inquiries, the provenance of that "1 million" number is unstated. (A Waxman aide "scoffed" at the number, Allen reports.) Presumably if you were to press for information as to where it had come from, it would prove an additional unreasonable burden. And as to whether that landmark (if it has been reached) is, in fact, "unusual," who knows? Certainly to a White House that suffered no oversight during its first six years, it is unusual.
Having staggered the mind with the "1 million" number, Allen quotes a "senior administration official" to drive home the real costs:
“There are a number of dry holes that got drilled,” a senior administration official said. “People don’t care about it. The public is saying: Gas is at $3 a gallon. Is there any energy bill? No.”The official even made sport of the Democrats’ approach, calling it “purely reflexive.”
“People are having concerns with their mortgages,” the official said. “Is there a mortgage bill? No. We have a government to fund. Is there any appropriations bill? No.
“But, I’ve got a new subpoena for you today — and we’re going to hold somebody in contempt. Doesn’t that help you?”
The main effect, the official said, was a distraction for the staff and countless hours of work for the White House counsel’s office.
Accepting the undeniable logic of every new subpoena meaning one less sweeping piece of legislation, it staggers the mind to think of what the Democratic Congress could have accomplished these past 11 months if it had spent its time passing the administration's legislation instead of investigating it. Not only that, but there wouldn't have been the additional burden of having to replace officials forced to resign as the result of those investigations. Think how much more could get done!
Now, if only the press would lay off too, then they could really get some things accomplished.
Comments (21)
TheraP wrote on December 3, 2007 10:02 AM:Wonder how many million are missing...
danger wrote on December 3, 2007 10:03 AM:What's the right word here to describe for the administration and the GOP's view of government oversight: myopic? contemptuous? petulant?
And still, they have the nerve to blame it on Democrats and label them as the obstructionists who, as a result, are destroying this country. Splendid.
biggerbox wrote on December 3, 2007 10:36 AM:Gee, if they don't like subpoenas, maybe they could just show up for hearings voluntarily, like past officials did.
JDHK wrote on December 3, 2007 10:39 AM:Only someone who is ignorant of the realities of modern litigation and regulation could call the production of 1 million documents "unusual". I am currently a graduate student but previously worked for one year as an associate at a major New York law firm, focusing on corporate litigation and regulatory actions. In that short period of time I worked on two cases--one a litigation between banks and the other an investigation by the SEC--in which more than a million documents were produced.
In short, document production on that scale is unremarkable in a single big case, let alone in multiple complex investigations.
moondancer wrote on December 3, 2007 10:41 AM:Yeah, I hate oversight on the Highway when I want to speed. Life's a bitch George.
OleHippieChick wrote on December 3, 2007 10:53 AM:Yeah, a half-million were duplicates of the first half-million, the other half were grocery lists.
jvill wrote on December 3, 2007 10:56 AM:Why yes, just think of how much more corrupt, incompetent and disastrous they could have been, if only given the opportunity.
My spine chills when I think of the mountains of catastrophe we have yet to unearth...
Astonished wrote on December 3, 2007 11:03 AM:When will the press stop doing meaningless quantitative stories rather than qualitative stories.
Numbers mean things, but only if put into a context with content, but that would take work and might offend someone who spoon feeds the reporter and his or her buddies.
Anonymous wrote on December 3, 2007 11:06 AM:To quote from a Congressional report on this topic...
"During the Clinton Administration, the oversight committee in the House of Representatives issued over 1,000 subpoenas to investigate alleged Administration and Democratic Party misconduct, and it received over two million pages of documents. The information demanded by Congress included details of discussions between President Clinton and his closest advisors, internal e-mails from the Office of the Vice President, FBI interview notes, and documents describing internal Administration deliberations. Clinton White House officials including the President’s top aides provided hundreds of hours of testimony to congressional committees."
Got any comment on that, Politico? Wait, what's that, the fax hasn't come in from the White House yet?
JEP wrote on December 3, 2007 11:06 AM:That 1 million mark represents a very deflated sum total of information, relative to the value of what was in those pages.
It is like one million German deutchmarks after WW1 were worth about $10, it is all worthless paper.
The golden nuggets of real truth are not buried in the pile, they are either redacted or missing completely.
So what's a million pages of info worth, if they have been so carefully selected not to aid the investigation vbut to inhibit it?
How about a million to one?
Anonymous wrote on December 3, 2007 11:10 AM:"The mind can scarcely comprehend the horrors of such unbridled oversight."
Paul, you are sounding more like Josh as the days pass, your subtle humor is much appreciated.
Unbridled oversight...
Now there's a horse we need to ride!
JEP wrote on December 3, 2007 11:13 AM:And since when did any of us who appreciate this kind of open-source blog and it's open-minded hosts, ever consider that Mike Allen and Politico were anything but Republicans in wolf's clothing...
Or is that redundant?
Batard wrote on December 3, 2007 11:20 AM:5 million emails to go.
cheflovesbeer wrote on December 3, 2007 11:58 AM:Republicans should not complain about getting nothing done as they just set a record for most fillibusters in a congress with a year to go.
warren terra wrote on December 3, 2007 12:01 PM:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/weekinreview/02herszenhorn.html
A million pages, even without Rummy's Snowflake memos!
"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."
- Gov. George W. Bush, president-elect Dec. 2000
And again in July 2001:
A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it."
Then came 9/11
And he's still dreaming of a time when he can do just what he wants to.
MPM wrote on December 3, 2007 12:24 PM:Gas is $3 a gallon. If Cheney only had time to meet secretly with big oil barons, we could have it at $4, easy! And do you know how long it's been since we invaded someplace?!
eli wrote on December 3, 2007 1:57 PM:Be nice if these 1 million pages included any of the information Congress had actually requested. At this point, SmirkCo's strategy is to drag things out till they've made a clean getaway, and Congress seems willing to let them do so. Not much choice, considering Mukasey won't enforce subpoenas against the SmirkCo, and Congress won't take any counterstrategies with teeth in them.
Anonymous wrote on December 3, 2007 4:06 PM:"Dry hole" is Texas oilspeak. Just which "senior unidentified aide" was he talking to?
danger wrote on December 3, 2007 7:23 PM:It does certainly sound Bush as if read by Bush. Though why would Bush ever be referred to as 'senior administrative official'?
Utopia wrote on December 4, 2007 10:10 PM:"The main effect, the official said, was a distraction for the staff and countless hours of work for the White House counsel’s office."
And this is a problem, why?
U
Utopia wrote on December 4, 2007 10:12 PM:"Accepting the undeniable logic of every new subpoena meaning one less sweeping piece of legislation, it staggers the mind to think of what the Democratic Congress could have accomplished these past 11 months if it had spent its time passing the administration's legislation instead of investigating it."
And imagine what they could have done if the *previous* Congress had done its oversight job! Now that's staggering.
U