To the editor:

Last November, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the new speaker of the House said, “Democrats are not about getting even.”

Hearings will be nearly back-to-back and ongoing. These hearings will be conducted on everything from environmental policy to secret surveillance to the war in Iraq and more. At least 11 hearings on Bush’s Iraq policies alone are planned over the next few weeks.

Democratic strategists have all but said it is far better at this time to keep the war focus on Bush and his administration rather than working toward an Iraq exit plan. “We need to be the watchdog,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. Waxman wants to personally head up investigating Katrina and “waste, fraud and abuse.”

“We will use these hearings to ask tough questions,” said senate leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. Last year, Reid accepted several boxing tickets while supporting legislation for federal oversight of boxing. This is strictly against the rules, but Reid simply said he would not do it again.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is threatening subpoenas to obtain secret CIA documents about detention and interrogation techniques used on suspected terrorists.

It appears the new Democratic majority wishes to spend more time in the congressional hearing room than on the floor of the House and Senate.

Tom Shewmon,

Linwood