110th Congress: After the First 100 Hours

ABC investigative reporter Rhonda Schwartz has a good piece on Brian Ross's blog, The Blotter. Payback Time: Will the Democrats Stick to Their Agenda? points out that every dem has their own agenda. I'd add that those agenda are the reasons these various Democrats find themselves where they are today and that 100 hours isn't an extremely long time to wait to get started on them.

During their campaigns and since their victory in the midterm elections, Democratic members of the 110th Congress have promised an ambitious agenda, including the "100-hour agenda" by the first female Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Halliburton, the CIA and big tobacco companies are among those identified by top Democratic staff to ABC News as the likely targets for investigation by Democrats in the House.

The staffers say Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who is being sworn in as the first female Speaker of the House at noon, has told top Democratic donors there is a "100-hour agenda" she wants to push through -- taking on the minimum wage, drug and energy prices and corruption.

Rather than ask, "Will they stick to the agenda?" the piece is probably better read as "100 hours: Now What?" Using her analysis, here's what we can expect -- investigations. Lots of them. I won't get into who's going to do what and why (read her post for details), but will boil it down to a few ideas as to what investigations we can expect in the coming months.

- War profiteering; esp. by Halliburton and it's subsidiary KBR.
- Response to hurricane Katrina and gulf coast rebuilding.
- The Randy "Duke" Cunningham scandal.
- Where the hell those forged documents about yellowcake in Niger came from.
- Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, and the Marianas Islands.
- Payday loans.
- Bush's 'extraordinary transition' program.
- Domestic surviellance and wiretapping.
- Secret CIA prisons.

Expect to hear Tony Snow use the term 'fishing expedition' frequently. Schwartz also points to John Conyers, who's book, George W. Bush Versus the U.S. Constitution: The Downing Street Memos and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, Coverups in the Iraq War and Illegal Domestic Spying, is about Bush administration misdeeds and crimes. As the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Conyers is a favorite among the 'impeach Bush now!' crowd. "His appetite for true investigation is untested," Schwartz quotes a top hill staffer as telling her.

Sounds like fun.

Tags: news | politics | Iraq | war | corruption | crime | congress | democrat | Nancy Pelosi | John Conyers