Overreach
Posted in: BushCo, CIA Leak Case, Congress, Democrats, GOP ethics, Iraq, Oversight, Plame
One of the words I've seen popping up here and there since the Democrats took Congress and started cranking up investigations is "overreach," and I think it's going to be The Next Big Thing in talking points, even bigger than "the pleasure of the President." (Please tell me I didn't just say "even bigger than the pleasure of the President"…) Republicans and their pet pundits use it to suggest that if the Democrats dig too deeply, the American people will become fed up with their out-of-control persecution of Poor Ickle Georgie. But what they really mean is, "We were so sure we would stay in power forever that we never thought we'd get caught. Please go easy on us even though you have no good reason to."
I think there is every possibility that the Democrats will overreach in over-investigations, too much spending and taxes, and by responding too much to their own primary voters on Iraq and not the public.
…[I]f Democrats overreach and focus so much of their resources and energy on these hearings… it makes it difficult to do anything on the policy front. Part of the reason they were elected was to provide a check-and-balance, but it was also to replace the do-nothing Congress with the do-something Congress, and doing something is not just investigating perfidy and wrongdoing.
It's amazing to me. This is what I'm talking about when I say a legitimate investigation can overreach. Democrats think Karl Rove is lurking behind every bush in Washington.
Anonymous Well-Connected Republican Senate Aide:
Democrats smell blood in the water, and (Gonzales’) resignation won’t stop them. And on our side, no one’s going to defend him. All we can do is warn Democrats against overreaching.
That last one is my favorite, because it's so telling, so… "we got nuthin'." It completely gives the game away.
Of course, whenever the threat of Democratic "overreach" is brought up, it is natural to compare it to Republican investigative overreach during the Clinton administration, and how that supposedly soured the public on the GOP (yeah, they just couldn't get elected after that). But the thing is, when the Republicans overreached, they investigated the Clintons for trumped-up offenses that were either trivial or complete bullshit: Whitewatergate, Travelgate, Christmas Card Listgate, Paulagate, Monicagate, Busted-Tail-Lightgate (okay, I might have made one of those up). The Democrats are investigating the Bush administration for real, honest-to-God serious crimes, like outing a covert operative, and using the Justice Department as a partisan sword and shield.
That is oversight, not overreach – and it's about bloody time.
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