THEY DON'T WANT TO KNOW, AND THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW

The Boston Globe examines the difference in Congressional oversight between the Clinton and Bush administrations. And it can't all be racked up to partisanship. In the years 1993-94, when Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, his own party never let up on Bill Clinton. The same cannot be said for the Republican-controlled Congress, which has asked for little to no accountability by George W. Bush and has blocked the opposition party from their own examinations.

Back in the mid-1990s, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, aggressively delving into alleged misconduct by the Clinton administration, logged 140 hours of sworn testimony into whether former president Bill Clinton had used the White House Christmas card list to identify potential Democratic donors.

In the past two years, a House committee has managed to take only 12 hours of sworn testimony about the abuse of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

The jarring comparison reflects the way Congress has conducted its oversight role during the GOP's era of one-party rule in Washington.

Tags: Congressional oversight, Bush administration, Republicans