Dems Score With Subpoenas

They can't pass bills, but they can sure hold hearings
By Colleen Barry,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 20, 2007 9:03 AM CDT
Dems Score With Subpoenas
Military personnel tesify about Defense Department Medical Programs.   (Getty Images)

Democrats haven't managed to score with a single one of the bills drafted in their giddy first 100 hours, but playing hardball with hearings has proved more fruitful. In cranking up the congressional oversight machinery, write Richard Simon and Noam Levey, they've dominated headlines and applied pressure to the administration.

The new Congress has held over 100 hearings seeking the truth behind scandals ranging from Valerie Plame's outing to the deplorable conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. With accountability the party's buzzword, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), claims that in the last three weeks, "more people were forced out of their jobs than the entire prior six years." (More Bush administration stories.)

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