White House Feels Waxman's Oversight Gaze

But what a show it has been, including former CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson's debut before the cameras to former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's return to the spotlight to answer what he knew about the "friendly fire" death of National Football League safety-turned-Army Ranger Pat Tillman.

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When Blackwater employees opened fire on civilians in Baghdad last month, Waxman's committee seemed to produce an extensive report on the company in an instant. When pro wrestler Chris Benoit killed his wife and son, then himself, committee staff leaned on years of work on steroids in sports to immediately dive into the murky world of World Wrestling Entertainment.

Waxman has shown himself to be tireless. On a single day last month, he angrily questioned the slow pace of change at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, led Jewish House colleagues to denounce Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) for suggesting that Jewish Americans helped start the Iraq war, and weighed in on another aspect of his committee's ongoing investigation of State Department Inspector General Howard J. Krongard.

Marin said Waxman has been dealt a very strong hand: an unpopular administration, an unpopular war and carte blanche from his leadership to go wherever he wants. Waxman's staff has a knack for atmospherics, holding information in its back pocket until news events pique interest.

"They understand there's nothing more exciting than seeing an e-mail or a secret document that you weren't ever supposed to see," Marin said.

Some investigations come straight from the headlines. This week's examination of the health effects of neglected uranium mines on the Navajo land was the result of a Los Angeles Times series. Others are the pet peeves of staff members. The committee's look into the Pentagon's manipulation of Tillman's death and the capture of then-Army Pvt. Jessica Lynch grew from Schiliro's own nagging questions.

But the real secret, Waxman said, is simply to follow investigations wherever they lead. When Republicans were in control of Congress, the committee began looking into the activities of felonious lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a probe that turned up e-mails that Bush administration officials sent via Republican National Committee accounts. When Democrats took over, Waxman pursued it further, producing evidence that administration officials as high as former presidential adviser Karl Rove had violated federal rules by using RNC e-mails to cover their tracks on official business, including the controversial firings of U.S. attorneys allegedly for political reasons.

As it turns out, thousands of RNC e-mails have disappeared, stoking still more investigations.

Waxman's fascination with government contracting led him to investigate the pricing on a contract between the General Services Administration and Sun Microsystems and a no-bid job, ultimately terminated, that GSA chief Lurita Alexis Doan had given to a longtime friend.

When committee aides asked the GSA for information about the contracts, they inadvertently received documents on a political briefing that a White House political aide had given to GSA political appointees after the 2006 elections. In subsequent interviews, multiple sources told committee investigators that, at the conclusion of the briefing, Doan asked what could be done to "help our candidates" in the next elections.

Now, that investigation has swelled, as committee staffers seek to catalogue all the political presentations and activities that White House political staff members marshaled in federal agencies in connection with the 2006 elections. (Doan has denied doing anything improper regarding the contracts, or inducing her employees to engage in political activity.)

Blackwater came to the committee's attention after four Blackwater employees were killed in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004. After the 2006 elections, lawyers for those employees' families contacted incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), accusing the company of negligence and asking for a probe. But committee staff members were already on the case, looking at Blackwater contracting costs along with other large contractors in Iraq. On Feb. 7, the committee formally began investigating the performance of private military contractors.

All of those threads work to the Democrats' advantage in multiple ways, hitting the Bush administration, keeping the war front and center, and bolstering Democratic efforts to steal the issues of waste, fraud and abuse from the GOP.

"We want to be the party that is ferreting out waste and fraud," said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), "and Henry's committee is the point of the spear for us."

Staff writer Elizabeth Williamson contributed to this report.