Waxman sinks teeth into watchdog role
By Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Erik Prince, the former Navy commando who runs Blackwater USA, has rarely spoken publicly about his company's billion-dollar security work for the U.S. government in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But last week, Prince found himself in a packed congressional hearing room, raising his right hand as shutters clicked and television cameras rolled. Hours of uncomfortable questions followed.
More than anyone else, one man made it happen: Democrat Henry Waxman of Los Angeles, a three-decade House veteran whose bald, mustachioed, bespectacled mien has become the face of oversight in Congress.
"I want you to know that Blackwater will be accountable today," Waxman said in his opening statement.
The hearing underscored the impact of having Waxman at the helm of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Democrats may have gained control of Congress in last year's elections, but their majority isn't always enough to make a difference. In the Senate, for instance, Republicans have enough votes to block Democratic legislation. But in the House of Representatives, the Republicans can't stop Waxman, who wields his subpoena power to investigate the Bush administration and its allies.
His committee room is where former CIA spy Valerie Plame spoke publicly for the first time about the administration's leak of her identity, and where former Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld denied knowing of a coverup of ex-football star Pat Tillman's death by friendly fire.
"Let's be honest, it's a pretty target-rich environment for Mr. Waxman these days," quipped David Marin, the oversight committee's Republican staff director.
(Continued here.)
WASHINGTON — Erik Prince, the former Navy commando who runs Blackwater USA, has rarely spoken publicly about his company's billion-dollar security work for the U.S. government in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But last week, Prince found himself in a packed congressional hearing room, raising his right hand as shutters clicked and television cameras rolled. Hours of uncomfortable questions followed.
More than anyone else, one man made it happen: Democrat Henry Waxman of Los Angeles, a three-decade House veteran whose bald, mustachioed, bespectacled mien has become the face of oversight in Congress.
"I want you to know that Blackwater will be accountable today," Waxman said in his opening statement.
The hearing underscored the impact of having Waxman at the helm of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Democrats may have gained control of Congress in last year's elections, but their majority isn't always enough to make a difference. In the Senate, for instance, Republicans have enough votes to block Democratic legislation. But in the House of Representatives, the Republicans can't stop Waxman, who wields his subpoena power to investigate the Bush administration and its allies.
His committee room is where former CIA spy Valerie Plame spoke publicly for the first time about the administration's leak of her identity, and where former Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld denied knowing of a coverup of ex-football star Pat Tillman's death by friendly fire.
"Let's be honest, it's a pretty target-rich environment for Mr. Waxman these days," quipped David Marin, the oversight committee's Republican staff director.
(Continued here.)
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