On the Al Franken show, Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter discussed Congress’ unwillingness to investigate anything that’s gone amiss in this administration. Franken mentioned the Republican Congress’ lack of interest in the disappearance of $8.8 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds. Alter contrasted the current situation with an earlier one:

Alter: During World War II… a shooting war every day with thousands of people being killed, a senator from Missouri named Harry Truman — who was seen at the time as a machine hack — he held hearings.

He was a Democrat. Nobody from the Roosevelt Administration said, “No, you can’t hold hearings about war profiteering.”

Franken: Democratic House, Democratic Senate, Democratic White House — they hold hearings.

Alter: Because smart people in government know that those hearings can actually help them do their jobs more competently. Ferret out wrongdoing. If you’re really patriotic, you want accountability, because you want to improve performance.

If Watergate taught us anything, it’s that the system works.

Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter imagines how Watergate would play out today:

Those of us who hoped it would end differently knew we were in trouble when former Nixon media adviser Roger Ailes banned the word “Watergate” from Fox News’s coverage and went with the logo “Assault on the Presidency” instead. By that time, the American people figured both sides were just spinning, and a tie always goes to the incumbent.

…

Just as in the Valerie Plame case, the Justice Department subpoenaed Woodward and Bernstein to testify before the grand jury about their sources. When they declined, they were jailed for 18 months on contempt charges.

Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow does the Time Warp, and Ward Sutton looks at Woodward and Bernstein, the Next Generation.

Well, heck. I’m just about positive this system used to work.

The fix is in, methinks:

A Justice Department decision to seek $10 billion for a stop-smoking program in its suit against the country’s leading tobacco companies, instead of the $130 billion suggested by one of its expert witnesses, set off a firestorm on Wednesday.

Several Democratic lawmakers with a longtime interest in smoking and health issues attacked the department for what they said was a politically motivated decision, as did public health groups.

Judge Gladys Kessler of Federal District Court, who is presiding in the trial here against the companies, took note of the sudden change, telling the court on Wednesday, “Perhaps it suggests that additional influences have been brought to bear on what the government’s case is.”

The states-rights administration that fought tirelessly to ban state-sanctioned medical marijuana has a different perspective on tobacco. They caved on the Microsoft antitrust case, too.

One thing you can say for sure about the Bush Administration: they sure ain’t working for us.