It was hardly surprising that Chronicle columnist Rick Casey, whose editorializing on the metro/state news pages sometimes resembles the editorializing on the actual editorial pages, endorsed the editorial board’s position that an independent commission be formed to investigate the response to Katrina.
While Casey did stop short of endorsing Jimmy Carter to head such a commission, he made a point of criticizing House Majority Leader Tom DeLay for opposing an independent investigative commission.
Casey neglected to mention that DeLay is on record as favoring a joint Congressional investigation into the response to Katrina. Here’s one such statement:
DeLay also said Congress would conduct oversight hearings on the problems with relief efforts at the federal, state and local level. “We need to determine what happened so we can fix it,” he said. “It is my opinion that the whole system broke down.”
DeLay, however, said calls for an outside commission to investigate the response, similar to the commission created to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, was unnecessary.
DeLay has made the point that oversight of the executive branch is a constitutional responsibility of the legislative branch. In that sense, it’s hardly surprising that the House Majority Leader doesn’t want to cede responsibility for oversight to an unelected commission.
An independent commission may eventually be formed, but nobody should expect it to take the place of Congressional responsibility for oversight, whether Jimmy Carter is involved or not.
