Norm Coleman lies about his involvement in oversight of Iraq

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) lies about his commitment to oversight in Iraq. As Chair of the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), he did little except bash the UN's Oil for Food program and kick FEMA Director Heckuvajob Brown as he had been appointed scapegoat for the failures surrounding the Hurricane Katrina response. Now he claims something he has never done. He included an amendment in the annual defense bill for oversight in Iraq. I discussed the amendment in this post.

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. The PSI can investigate anything the Chair wants. Between 2003 and 2007 when Norm was chair he DID NOT investigate anything that might have made a Republican look bad. Here's the list of items he could have investigated in Iraq:

• Dispersal of the Iraqi Army
• Cronyism in appointments in Provisional Govt
• Torture at Abu Ghraib
• No bid contracts
• Disappearing money
• 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
• Death of Pat Tillman
• Lies surrounding abduction and rescue of Jessica Lynch
• Overcharges among contracting companies in Iraq

Norm's desire to claim that he believes in accountability in government has more to do with his desire to get reelected. Most telling is that he's willing to lie to Minnesotans to further his reelection effort.