Posted by
Defend America on Wednesday, March 31, 2010 6:12:16 PM
Henry Waxman: The Witch Hunter of Capitol Hill
by Michelle Malkin
Has there ever been a time when 18-term liberal Democratic Rep.
Henry Waxman's nostrils weren't flaring indignantly at corporate
executives and entrepreneurs? The man wields his gavel over the free
market like a Damoclean sword. He throws the weight of his
congressional chairmanship around like a sumo wrestler walking across
hot stones. For more than 35 years, Waxman has made it his
taxpayer-funded business to use the power of government to undermine
private business.
No one should be surprised by his latest thuggish efforts to
silence companies speaking out about the cost implications and
financial burdens of Demcare -- least of all, those companies.
This is the Eliot Ness-wannabe who serves proudly as the
left's chief inquisitor. This is the Capitol Hill haranguer who herded
tobacco company CEOs in front of the cameras, made them raise their
right hands and cackled as he forced them to testify under oath about
the evils of their products. Waxman's demagoguery then was so over the
top that it prompted Washington Post columnist William Raspberry to
write that the "Capitol Hill inquisition masquerading as legislative
hearings reminds me of nothing so much as a witch-hunting Joe
McCarthy."
Last month, Waxman stacked the deck at the Toyota inquisition
hearing with auto industry-bashing Naderites. In 2007, he held court
over the Valerie Plame show trial. And in February 2008, he wasted four
hours on a nationally televised interrogation of baseball legend Roger
Clemens and his trainer. Republicans called Waxman out on his Captain
Queeg-ish vendetta against Clemens. The debacle was dubbed a "Roman
Circus." After squandering public resources on congressional
showboating over steroid use, Waxman himself confessed that he "didn't
think it was a hearing that needed to be held."
http://townhall.com/columnists/MichelleMalkin/2010/03/31/henry_waxman_the_witch_hunter_of_capitol_hill