Lieberman Has No Plans To Investigate Blackwater, Corrupt Iraq Contractors

[meegbear]

Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who chairs the Senate committee responsible for government oversight, says he has no plans to investigate Blackwater and other Iraq war contractors accused of potentially criminal wrongdoing. Roll Call reports (sub req'd):

Though Lieberman said he gets "angry when I hear about fraud or corruption in the spending of American dollars," he said he in part chooses what to have hearings on by "watching who else is doing what," noting that (House oversight chairman Henry) Waxman has held several hearings on Iraq oversight, as have the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees.

"You've got to set your own priorities, and it was clear to me that other committees were going to pick this up," said Lieberman.

Roll Call notes that on the day Iraq revoked Blackwater's license after the shooting of 17 civilians, Waxman immediately announced hearings on private security contractors. Lieberman "announced two firefighting grants for the towns of Bolton and Willington in his home state."

Lieberman has held only one hearing all year on "reconstruction challenges in both Iraq and Afghanistan," compared to eight hearings on Iraq and contracting abuses in the House.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/10/lieberman-has-no-plans-to_n_67825.html

[aquart]

1. Dear God, make that man irrelevant.

I'm begging here.

[skipos]

5. That means voting for progessive Dems in the primary, straight Dem in the G.E.

Not that a bigger Dem majority will be anywhere near some kind of progressive utopia, but it will at least reduce the amount of power Lieberman has.

[truebrit71]

2. Why is this turn-coat f*ck the chair of ANY committee except the "I am a f*cking weasel" committee?

...unacceptable....

I cannot wait until we have a large enough majority in the Senate to kick this toad to the curb...

[still_one]

3. The truth is lieberman's time is limited. 2008 is not that far away

their are 26 republican seats up for re-election in the Senate, and only 12 Democratic

We will take the Senate in a big way.

He will soon be irrelevent

[cali]

6. If only we didn't have to wait.

He's way worse than useless. I hope he's suffering a fuck of a lot of anxiety and knows full well that the clock is ticking.

[still_one]

10. I agree. It is quite sad, because he could have done the right thing /nt

[jojo54]

4. Not a surprise.

Move along folks, nothing to see here. Go home and watch Fox News.

Edited to add: :sarcasm:

[Tom Joad]

7. why would congress want to do that? Notice that though some talk of

"investigations", i could fit into my sub-compact the number of congresspeople who call for the forced evacuation of the mercenaries.

[Tom Joad]

8. don't blame Lieberman, blame the senate misleadership.

[cali]

11. No. That makes no sense. Lieberman IS to blame

Reid? Not so much. Funny to see you excusing Lieberman when it's convenient for you to bash the leadership.

[Tom Joad]

13. If the senate leadership wanted an investigation, i think it would take place

besides, what is really needed is a call to remove the mercenaries, not only an "investigation", not only "tighter controls".

Reid and the others can do that without Joe's help. If they wanted to.

[cali]

14. Do you know for a fact that there are no investigations into

Blackwater and other mercenaries, planned in the Senate? Or just assuming that?

[Tom Joad]

16. I know for a fact there are investigations (taking place in House at least),

but like i said, and is clear from my post is that I want more than investigations, but a call to remove the mercs.
From the headlines i have been reading, they seem to be saying that they should be more *accountability*... but i want to hear them say they must be removed completely.

[sakabatou]

9. He should just go R

He seems to be wearing their colors well.

[seafan]

12. And Lieberman wasn't interested in investigating Katrina aftermath either. Blackwater was there.

(see the embedded links in this snippet at http://thinkprogress.org/2007/01/30/lieberman-katrina/">Think Progress)


January 30, 2007

When he was running for re-election, Lieberman pledged to investigate the White House’s conduct in the aftermath of Katrina. But, Newsweek recently reported:

Sen. Joe Lieberman, the only Democrat to endorse President Bush’s new plan for Iraq, has quietly backed away from his pre-election demands that the White House turn over potentially embarrassing documents relating to its handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans.

Lieberman said he was not interested in “looking back, and assigning blame would be a waste of Congress’ time.” Responding to yesterday’s protestor, Lieberman said, “We don’t want to play ‘gotcha’ anymore.”

Lieberman Has No Plans To Investigate Blackwater, Corrupt Iraq Contractors,

October 10, 2007, HuffingtonPost


Vote this man OUT, Connecticut.

Maybe we can make him irrelevant in the meantime.

[pansypoo53219]

15. joemental

is the biggest fucking mistake. for Gore, for CN.
and we can't remove him from the chair of this committee???

i swear, i hate him almost as much as bushit.