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Article: A slight oversight: congressional investigations of the executive branch have been sandbagged by the White House and its allies on Capitol Hill. Can the Democrats revive a lost art?(ELECTION 2006 SPECIAL)
- Article from:
- The American Prospect
- Article date:
- October 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 The American Prospect, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WHEN SENATE MAJORITY LEADER LYNDON Johnson became vice president in 1961, he persuaded his protege and successor, Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana, to let Johnson continue running the Senate Democratic caucus. The vice president, constitutionally and ceremonially, is Senate president, voting only to break ties. However, no vice president had ever proposed to function as a quasi-senator, much less caucus leader. Mansfield loyally acceded to Johnson's scheme, but the caucus rebelled. According to the official transcript quoted by biographer Robert Caro, Senator Mike Monroney of Oklahoma, a Johnson ally, indignantly warned, "We are creating a precedent of concrete and ...