Towns Is Certainly No Waxman

When Congressman Waxman left the House Government and Oversight Committee for the Energy and Commerce Committee, there were big shoes to fill for his replacement. Unfortunately, thanks to seniority, that man was Brooklyn's Congressman Ed Towns. It isn't that he has the worst record among Democrats, but that he has hardly any record, in twenty-six years of representing his district. His tobacco connections also do not look so good. Naturally, I did not have high hopes for his very first Committee Chair position.

And well, neither does he:

California Democrat Henry Waxman, Mr. Towns’ direct predecessor, was the paradigm, leveraging the position for maximum influence by spearheading high-profile investigations and afflicting the powerful with his peevish demeanor. “Waxman showed what could be done in that committee,” said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University. “The chair has got a roving commission to go after almost anything, from the spill in Tennessee at that coal impoundment pond to hauling in Citibank executives.”

Expect Mr. Towns’ style to be somewhat different.

“I’m not one of the guys who jumps in front of the cameras,” he told The Brooklyn Paper in August 2008.
Video of Mr. Towns, a North Carolina native, at committee hearings and giving Congressional testimony depict a mild-mannered politician who sticks to his talking points.

Now sure, he does have plans to do oversight, but nothing along the lines of what Congressman Waxman has done in the last Congress and before Republicans took over in 1994 as well. Personally, I believe that in this crucial role, one must be a passionate advocate for reform and exposing crooked activities, whether it be in the public or private sector. Waxman had that tenacity. Going on Towns' quarter of a century in Congress, he doesn't.