Oversight

Norm will claim during his reelection campaign that he's for oversight. He's lying unless he adds that he's for oversight as long as its not into anything that might embarrass or endanger any Republicans. During the Republican Congress, Norm was Chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI). He had the power to subpoena anyone he wanted and haul them before his committee to answer questions on just about anything.

Here are the limited circumstances when Norm believes in oversight:

• When it is someone or some institution that conservatives hate. Norm relentlessly pursued corruption in the United Nations Iraq Oil for Food program.
• The second circumstance is when conservatives have thrown one of their own under the bus to avoid answering bigger questions. Heckuva Job Brownie is the perfect example.
• The third circumstance is oversight where conservatives will not be targeted or in any way harmed. For example, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction’s (SIGIR) oversight of U.S. efforts in Iraq.

Outside of the PSI, he has investigated preciously little. Here's everything I'm aware that he's investigated:

• United Nation's Iraq Oil for Food program
• FEMA Chief Michael Brown
• Doctors owing back taxes but still collecting medicare and medicaid payments.
• Civil servants who travel business or first class instead of coach
• Safe importation of prescription drugs (protecting the pharmaceutical industry)
• Human Rights Council of the UN
• Music industry's battle with computer downloading
• U.S. companies setting up sham offshore tax shelters
• Overseas tax shelters for the rich

This would all be well and good if Norm didn't attempt to claim that he's a big proponent of oversight:

Senator Coleman has led the effort to ensure and expand Congressional oversight in Iraq. Along with voting to create the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction to ensure oversight of Iraqi reconstruction efforts, Coleman worked with Senator Russ Feingold, among other colleagues, to save the SIGIR office when it was set to be shut down at the end of 2006.
[emphasis mine]
(Norm's 9/28/07 press release)

Norm has led the effort to ensure and expand oversight on Iraq? This is clearly a lie. He claims to have saved SIGIR, but he failed America. Furthermore, he didn't provide any oversight of SIGIR. What is worse for Norm is the that there is not just one case of corruption in SIGIR but two of them. SIGIR is just a propaganda tool for the Bush Administration.

Former Sen. Mark Dayton wrote a op-ed in the St. Paul Pioneer Press describing in detail how he repeatedly asked Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) to investigate no-bid Iraq reconstruction contracts. Norm was Chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. As Chair Norm could have brought anyone before the Committee, put them under oath and gotten answers on whatever topic he wanted. Norm ignored Dayton's request and in fact never responded to his letters.

Read his op-ed here.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) was a member of the PSI when Norm chaired it. He repeatedly tried to get Norm to investigate, but Norm wouldn't:

But Norm Coleman and the Republican leadership of the committee simply refused to to investigate. Even after multiple requests from me and my colleagues to get the committee to do its job and get to the bottom of it – they refused.

As an Army veteran, the committee’s failures were infuriating, especially because it was undermining the well-being of our troops in Iraq.

By turning a blind eye to Halliburton’s transgressions in Iraq, Norm Coleman refused to protect billions in taxpayer dollars. And the reason he refused is tragic: merely to protect Vice President Cheney from embarrassment.
(Franken campaign press release, 9/25/08)

Here's the list of items Norm could have investigated as Chair of the PSI:

• Intel reports on WMD's
• Dispersal of the Iraqi Army
• NSA's secret wiretapping program
• Cronyism in appointments in Provisional Govt
• Torture at Abu Ghraib
• No bid contracts
• Billions of dollars of State Department cash disappearing in Iraq
• Corruption among contracting companies in Iraq
• Poorly constructed facilities built by contractors
• Contaminated water drunk and used by troops
• Abuses committed by contracting companies in Iraq
• Production problems for MRAP vehicles
• Wrong or not enough armor for troops and their vehicles
• Death of Pat Tillman
• Lies surrounding abduction and rescue of Jessica Lynch
• Overcharges among contracting companies in Iraq
• Guantanamo
• Jack Abramoff's influence at the White House
• Forced prostitution and forced abortions in the Mariana's Islands

Here is a list of posts I've written or someone else at mnblue has written concerning Norm's oversight or lack thereof.

• That big, ugly oil-for-food bird comes home to roost
• Norm Coleman lies about his involvement in oversight of Iraq
• Norm Coleman flip flops on oversight on Iraq
• Norm Coleman's incompetent and partisan version of oversight
• This is what passes for oversight
• This is the reward what lack of oversight reaps
• Lack of oversight: Another story about how we failed in Iraq
• Norm, what about Inspector General Howard Krongard?
• Norm ignored Chinese drug imports
• Vino, skiing, sports tix, food, strip club & fat checks
• Norm lies about his role in oversight of Iraq
• Norm Coleman's favorite example of oversight is corrupt
• Norm Coleman And Jack Abramoff
• Norm Coleman, Jack Abramoff, and Prostitution
• Someone was trying to provide oversight of Halliburton
• Norm Coleman: faux champion of oversight

My four part fairy-tale trilogy about Norm's capacity for oversight:

• Once upon a time in Chicago
• Once upon a time in Chicago, Part II
• Once upon a time in Chicago, Part III: The Heimlich Maneuver
• Part IV: The Chicago fairy tale and Norm Coleman

Check out Ed Kohler's dissection of a Norm ad in which Norm takes a load of quotes about himself out of context. I thought it was his opponents that quoted things about Norm out or context.