Ah, the third coming of the Truman Committee, this time with Jim Webb at the helm. The second, of course, was the Lyndon Johnson version during the Korean War. Johnson didn't actually care about finding profiteering or inefficiency; the committee was a vehicle for him to produce headlines.

Johnson got himself on the cover of Time over the headline 'Too Much Butter, Not Enough Guns,' and the magazine referred to him as 'Watchdog in Chief.' Of course, hardly any of Johnson's allegations stood up to hard examination, and yet Time reported them uncritically, apparently failing to read more than the first couple pages of each report.

The difference between then and now is that there obviously has been waste on a humongous scale. But is this really going to turn up crimes by Bush Administration officials? Because if all we get is the CEO of Halliburton on a spit, then I'm not really all that interested.

And if the Democrats in Congress aren't willing to stand up to Bush and drag Harriet Miers in front of the Judiciary Committee, then they might as well just stop investigating and roll over until Bush has left office. The all-night session was alright, but if it isn't the start of a new 'get tough' attitude on the part of the Dems, it's just going to end up making it easier for Republicans to portray them as weak-willed.