As the sun sets on the Democrat majority in the House, the soon-to-be ex-chairman Henry Waxman has exhibited yet again why the Democrat leadership has become unhinged. In an October 19th Politico article entitled “Waxman blasts Chamber,” Waxman charges that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is committing illegal acts in this year’s elections. What facts does Henry Waxman base these serious allegations on? Absolutely nothing.
Waxman’s modern-day McCarthyism is nothing more than smoke and mirrors to divert the voters’ attention away from real issues. When Americans go to the polls on November 2nd, they will be voting on issues like the stagnant economy and the 9.6 percent unemployment rate.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has repeatedly stated on the record that it does not comingle foreign funds with election activity. Where was Waxman’s outrage on this issue in 2006 and 2008 when the A.F.L. – C.I.O and the Sierra Club spent millions of dollars against Republican candidates? Both of these liberal organizations have international affiliations and receive foreign money.
Waxman also seems to forget the 1990s, when he was the chief obstructionist for the Clinton White House. During the investigations of foreign funds in President Clinton’s re-election campaign and the DNC, Henry Waxman was the ranking member of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, and couldn’t have cared less about the specter of foreign influence in campaigns. Millions upon millions of dollars flooded the DNC and the Clinton-Gore reelection committee from overseas. Dozens of people were actually prosecuted and convicted by the Justice Department for their illegal acts.
As chief investigator on the Government Reform and Oversight Committee during the 1990s, I saw firsthand Henry Waxman slow-walking the committee’s investigations on foreign influence in campaigns. He was the protector-in-chief for the Clinton White House, and the soon–to-be presidential candidacy of Al Gore. His recent statement about the Chamber reeks of hypocrisy, because he was defending the Clinton people knowing full well that he was defending the indefensible.
When the postmortem is done after this year’s midterms, Henry Waxman should become the poster child of why the Democrats lost their majority in the House. He and his fellow liberal colleagues have not focused on what the American voters want. They have resorted to McCarthy-like attacks on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because they have no real agenda to sell to the American people. It is sad to see a chairman of one of the most powerful committees in Congress resort to slander. On the morning of November 3rd, I hope Henry Waxman takes a long, hard look in the mirror as former Chairman Waxman.
David N. Bossie is the president of Citizens United and Citizens United Productions, and the executive producer of “America at Risk.”