Condoleeza Rice, You're Up First

Blank checks are sooo 2006. Checks and balances are in now! Democrats have promised to make up for lost time in beginning the oversight of the war that was ignored by their predecessors. TPMmuckraker has details on what's up first-

Who'll receive the first grilling of the new era of oversight? Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is the lucky winner, who'll be the first administration official to run the Democratic gauntlet.

On Thursday, she'll start the day with a 10 A.M. hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Iraq, and then, after a short lunch, make her way over to the House to spend some time with the House Committee on Foreign Affairs at 2 P.M on the same topic.

For an encore, the Senate Armed Services Committee will follow up by questioning SecDef Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Peter Pace Friday morning.

C-SPAN junkies = stoked.

On a related note, the President has picked a replacement for Harriet Miers as White House counsel. It will be Fred F. Fielding, who held that position in the Reagan White House. And if anyone knows anything about giving Congress the runaround on numerous constitutional crimes and abuses, it's a Reagan administration laywer. It's gonna be a busy two years.