Congressional Quarterly reports on Dennis Kucinich’s new subcommittee chair, the trouble he can cause, and its implications for his longshot Presidential bid.
As he prepares for his second consecutive underdog bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Ohio Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich can use a bully pulpit to draw attention to his activist liberal agenda. His appointment this week to be chairman of a new House domestic oversight subcommittee could help.
The panel headed by Kucinich is under the House Oversight Committee, chaired by California Rep. Henry A. Waxman. The Domestic Subcommittee will oversee domestic policy issues including health care, labor, pensions, energy and the environment, among others.
Kucinich said that as head of the new subcommittee, he will be able to influence Democratic policy making and “re-establish public oversight” over regulatory agencies that he said has been absent since President Bush took office.
“I will be asking questions about the operations of every federal department and expect to be able to bring to public light information that has been hidden for the last six years,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
He has broad leeway to pursue this goal. The subcommittee will have jurisdiction over the Labor, Commerce, Interior and Energy departments, as well as the anti-trust division of the Justice Department, the Federal Communications Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, among other agencies.
It may be a good perch for Kucinich, an unconventional and outspoken figure who was the last challenger to drop from the field in 2004 after Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry emerged as the Democratic Party’s consensus candidate.
Keep an eye on the Department of Interior. That is where Abramoff did most of his damage. Kucinich could get a lot of attention with hearings over Indian casinos and other land-use issues. He’ll never win the nomination, but he might get a lot of attention and do better than expected.
