Republicans Play Dead Over Katrina Probe

This one has me steamed. The Los Angeles Times reports today that the House and Senate majority leaders have thrown their hands in the air and given up on a joint committee to investigate all the Before and After of Hurricane Katrina (HT: Hugh Hewitt)

Why have they called it quits? Because the Democrats refuse to play nice.

In announcing a joint probe this month, the Republican leadership had said it would be the most efficient way to investigate the administration's much-criticized initial response to the hurricane. But today, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) conceded that he could not overcome Democratic opposition to a joint investigation.

Big stinkin' whoop!

Democratic opposition has left Republicans little maneuvering room for mounting a credible probe. With the joint investigation apparently off the table, Republicans can only hope that Democrats will participate in each chamber's separate investigation. It was far from clear today that Democrats would do that.

So we've got a situation where the Democrats definitely won't cooperate with a joint investigation, because of "the lack of equal representation of Democrats on the panel, and the lack of power to issue subpoenas that the majority opposed."

At the same time, the Democrats probably won't cooperate with separate investigations by the House and the Senate. "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) remains adamant that Democrats will not participate in the House committee."

The Democrats do not have equal representation in either the House or the Senate, so they shouldn't have equal representation on a joint committee. We can be certain that if the Democrats held the majority in Congress, Republicans would have a snowball's chance of getting equal representation on any joint investigations.

What infuriates me is not the Congressional Democrats. It's their nature to be loud, obnoxious, unreasonably demanding, petty, stubborn, irrational boors. Obstruction is what they do, so when they do it, there's no surprise.

What's infuriating is the Congressional Republican leadership, who have still not figured out that they're in charge. They have the majority. They call the shots. They are the ones to decide what kind of Congressional investigation there will be--joint or separate--and once it's decided, the Democrats are invited to play along if they want to.

If the Democrats refuse to cooperate, it's their own stupid fault if they get left on the sidelines.

If Frist and Hastert want to make nice with the Congressional Democrat leadership, then Frist and Hastert can step down from their majority leader positions and make nice on their own time. What the Republican Party needs most is a leadership with the iron will to stand up to the Democrats, and that's obviously something the GOP doesn't have right now.

It's time to get Republican leaders with a spine.