Congress isn't acting like a separate branch of our Gov't.

[napi21]

I watched a panel on cspan this morning that was sponsored by The Center for American Progress. The topic was "Oversight". I didn't write down the names of all four panelists, but I wasvery impressed by a former Republican Representative...Mickey Edwards R-OK. He served in the House from 1977 to 1993. He explained that when he was elected to the Hosue, he went into the job, not as a supporter of a Party, but as a Congressmanwho had a job to do, and a big part of that job was OVERSIGHT. Congress IS one of the three branches of our Gov't, NOT apart of the President's staff!

Hetalked about how disturbed he was that many members of the Executive Branch have just been blowing Congress off. He said, if I had been head of the Judiciary Committee and asked Rummy to testify before my committee and he said "hE WAS TOO BUSY!", the next thing I would have done is reduce the DOD office budget by 10%, and if that didn't get his attention, I'd reduce it by 20%! Congress is just being ignoredby the Executive Branch, and there are NO consequences! There are many things that can be done; cut off funding, Censure,Subpoenas, etc. It's going to take a complete mind set change for all our Congressmen. One where they actually DO THE JOB they swear to dowhen they are sworn into office!

That panel is going to continue in an afternoon session, but I don't knowif or when it will be aired on cspan, I checked the cspan site, but they didn't even have the morning session listed.

If they rerun ittonight some time, it's well worth watching!