Norm's Outrage Too Little and Too Late

by Dave Mindeman

Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency? -- Joseph Welch, McCarthy Hearings, June 9, 1954

That famous answer to a question from Sen. Joe McCarthy marked the beginning of the end of the McCarthy witchhunt era. Senator McCarthy was chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He used the broad mandate of that committee to expand his very public investigation on communist activities in the United States.

That was an abuse of power, but this committee's mandate can also be used for the public good. It's broad oversight powers were meant to be a powerful check on the potential abuses of the excecutive branch. It has subpoena and investigative power over a broad range of subjects -- it is not limited to one area or sector. It is supposed to protect the public.

Norm Coleman served as chairman of that committed from 2003 to 2007. Years that covered US involvement in the Iraq War. Years that sent billions and billions of dollars to maintain security and rebuild a country devastated by our invasion.

Norm's most public investigation involving that committee was the oil for food scandal via the United Nations. Norm investigated how Saddam circumvented the world sanctions against him to bring in millions of dollars to his country. The Democrats on that committee issued a minority report on the same topic which showed how American companies were participating in the very same practice of evading the restricted trade sanctions with Iraq for their own purposes. Norm did not act on that report.

Yesterday, Senator Coleman announced he "will try to block $1 billion in future Iraq reconstruction funds".

That's $1 billion in a bill that will send an additional $162 billion to Iraq and Afghanistan. $1 billion blocked from going to a country with a $79 billion surplus. $1 billion taken back from Congressional spending approval in Iraq of $600 billion.

Norm Coleman...you are a little late to the oversight accountability game.

In Eric Black's discussion of the Iraq War positions of Franken and Coleman, Norm responds in this way:

He says that other committees had staff on the ground in Iraq and were better positioned to oversee the reconstruction, that Congress (with his support) created a position and an agency for a Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction, and that he never prevented any member of the PSI from investigating reconstruction contracts.

You should notice that Norm is passing the buck THREE times here. Investigations on Iraq disbursements were:

a) better positioned by other committees
b) investigated by a whole new "Special Inspector General"
c) potentially could have been investigated by other PSI members.

But that tells us all we need to know about Norm Coleman's leadership. He had full authority to investigate all aspects of Iraq. There would have been no need for yet another bureaucatic position and he, as chair of the committee, could have led the way for the investigation instead of passing it off as a "failure" of his committee members to do so.

So, as Norm calls his news conference, to "demand" this accountability of US disbursements for Iraqi reconstruction -- I hope it serves to remind us that Norm failed the leadership test when being truly "independent" could have meant something.

Where Joe McCarthy had no "decency" in his abuse of power -- Norm Coleman lacks the "decency" to utilize that power to protect the American people.