Chris Shays doesn't do oversight, but his 2008 challenger, Jim Himes, apparently does.
Today the Himes campaign debuted a website, APerfectJob.info, that documents Chris Shays' dereliction of duty on the House Oversight Committee:
Chris Shays serves on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. But instead of using his position to actually conduct oversight of private security contractors in Iraq and ask the tough questions that his job demands, he has been using it to relentlessly defend the Bush Administration and effusively praise witnesses like the CEO of Blackwater USA:
The site gets its name, "A Perfect Job," from the phrase Shays used to describe Blackwater USA during an Oversight hearing in October. The committee was investigating the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians by Blackwater guards. This was a time when everyone, including Shays' own constituents, was screaming for proper oversight.
We advocate -- no, insist -- on stronger congressional oversight of all outside contractors in Iraq and other war zones. ... If Blackwater USA security guards fired without provocation, they should be tried.
The State Department's actions speak louder than its statement claiming continuing faith in Blackwater USA, whose guards last month allegedly fired indiscriminately on people in a square in Baghdad.
But instead of investigating Blackwater, Shays used his time at the hearing to praise Blackwater CEO Erik Prince for doing "A Perfect Job."
Watch the video:
Shays' Blackwater performance was only his most glaring example of undermining Congressional hearings. Other examples include the investigation of Lurita Doan and the Government Services Administration.
Doan had turned the GSA into a political favor machine doling out government services to Republicans in need of good press at election time - in an apparent violation of the Hatch Act. Shays himself was the beneficiary of GSA favors, but the obvious conflict of interest didn't stop Shays from acting as Doan's personal cheerleader.
Watch the video:
At another hearing, looking into the mysterious friendly fire death of American war hero Pat Tillman, Shays laid off any serious questions of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and merely thanked Rumsfeld for just "showing up."
At a hearing looking into the deaths of Blackwater contractors killed in Falluha, Shays didn't grill Blackwater executives. He ripped into the widows of the contractors.
Over the last several years, by failing to conduct any meaningful oversight of the Bush Administration, Shays has slipped into the role of a Bush lap dog.
Jim Himes, by holding Shays accountable, has become the new watch dog.
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