Lieberman's oversight activities have watchdogs howling

By Dan Friedman
Congress Daily
July 15, 2008

A Senate hearing Friday took aim at former Halliburton subsidiary KBR, whose contract work was blamed by witnesses for the electrocution of up to 13 Americans. But the heated hearing also offered ammunition against another frequent target of the left: Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn.

The hearing was held by the Democratic Policy Committee -- the seventh DPC has held on profiteering and waste in Iraq since Democrats regained control of Congress in 2006.

Senate Democrats began the hearings in 2004 to highlight what they called a failure by the Republican-led Senate to oversee war spending. That the partisan panel continues despite Democratic control of the chamber strikes some lawmakers, aides and watchdog groups as a sign of Lieberman's failure to aggressively oversee the Bush administration.

"The reason the DPC is doing this is because Lieberman isn't," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "I think it would just kill him to say anything negative about the Bush administration," Sloan said.

Democratic Policy Committee Chairman Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said he is "not critical of anyone" but called the DPC hearings "the only way for Americans to hear about these issues."

Faced with Lieberman's support for the presidential bid of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., calls for Senate Democrats to punish Lieberman in November are growing. Last week the group "Lieberman Must Go" gave the Democratic Steering Committee 43,000 signatures demanding it strip Lieberman of his chairmanship.

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