The American Spectator

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The American Spectator's Washington Prowler wrongly identified its prey when it reached for POGO in its January 22 column "Democrats in a Hurry."

Since being founded 25 years ago the Project On Government Oversight has been vigorously non-partisan. Our prior investigations into the federal government have exposed systemic problems that have spanned multiple Administrations including overspending and other abuses that would have cost taxpayers billions of dollars. (An outcome that should warm the cockles of conservative hearts.) Several targets of our investigations -- from both sides of the aisle--have been so stung by our reports that they have attempted to retaliate against us in several ways, including holding us in contempt of Congress and subpoenaing our telephone records.

The list of errors in this article is embarrassingly long and reveals a need for tighter fact-checking. As part of our continued dedication to contracting oversight, POGO is investigating Iraq War reconstruction activities, not the Bush Administration's conduct of the Iraq War as you claimed. The article's remaining factual errors focus on our Congressional Oversight Training Series, launched before the 2006 mid-term elections.

The most egregious error is the claim that members of the media outlets you named were invited to attend the oversight training sessions. Two members of the media have attended the sessions, Mr. Grimaldi as a facilitator and a National Journal reporter who wrote about the series but adhered to our requirement to keep the session's content off-the-record.

We are stringent about our requirement that each session is facilitated by at least one Republican and one Democrat and are proud to say that we have bipartisan co-chairs from both Houses of Congress: Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.), and Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.). In addition our advisors include Ginni Thomas of the Heritage Foundation and Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) has joined our House co-chairs in sending letters to all House members encouraging them to attend the sessions.

POGO's training sessions are routinely attended by staff from both chambers and both sides of the aisle and we regret that your article may convince some Republicans that the sessions are not designed with them in mind.

Finally, your description of Sens. Grassley, McCain, and Snowe as "cooperators" with Democrats smacks of an ignorance of Congress's function. The tone makes it seem as though Democrats and Republicans are not supposed to work together. Let us remind you that when the government buys a fighter jet that will be used to protect this country it should not be a Republican or Democratic jet -- it had better be a working jet. When energy companies shortchange the government on royalties, states with Republican and Democratic districts suffer.

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