The record of George W. Bush's presidency is so
  grim that the dangers posed by the current U. S.
  House of Representatives goes more or less
  unnoticed.

  The other day, for example, Rep. Ed Whitfield of
  Kentucky was picked by House leaders to head an
  oversight and investigations panel that's supposed to
  help protect you and me.

  Why not just hand the keys to the committee room
  directly to Whitfield's friends in America's
  corporate corridors?

  This subcommittee has jurisdiction over everything from consumer protection, product safety and
  product liability to public health, motor vehicle safety, energy resources, interstate commerce,
  international trade, pollution and environmental protection, telecommunications, and drug regulation.

  But those who look out for corporate and property interests in the capital need not lose sleep.

  Whitfield brags about how much pleasure he gives the lobbyists for business. He preens about earning
  the "Spirit of Enterprise" award from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which also gave him a perfect
  100 percent rating on its most recent report card. The Business-Industry Political Action Committee
  gave him 95 percent approval for his votes. The National Federation of Independent Businesses named
  him a "Guardian of Small Business."

  The League of Conservation Voters was less impressed, believing he voted right only 5 percent of the
  time. The American Public Health Association thought he was right only 12 percent. But then these
  groups champion clean air and water, a sustainable environment and a healthy America, while
  Whitfield has been designated, officially, a "Champion of Private Property Rights" by the League of
  Private Property Voters.

  It's no wonder Whitfield knows how to please business lobbyists. He was one.

  A former vice president of state relations for the massive CSX railroad, he was promoted to vice
  president for federal railroad affairs in 1988. From 1991 until 1993, he was counsel to the chairman of
  the Interstate Commerce Commission, where, by his own account, he "worked to reduce regulation of
  the nation's barge, railroad and trucking industries."

  The attitude of the rail industry toward public safety, and governmental efforts to ensure it, came
  through loud and clear in a recent investigation by The New York Times. Its computer analysis of
  1999-2003 records revealed at least 400 grade-crossing accidents in which signals didn't activate or
  were alleged to have malfunctioned. At least 45 people died and 130 were injured.

  Railroads say most such problems can be traced to driver mistakes. The head of Operation Lifesaver
  told Congress the Federal Highway Administration credits this industry-supported education program
  with saving 10,000 lives and preventing 40,000 injuries, by stressing personal responsibility. But, the
  Times reported a few days ago, the highway administration says it never made such a claim.

  Whitfield, a graduate of the railroads' school of governmental influence, is proud of having come to
  Congress in the 1994 Gingrich Revolution, "to help reverse a 40-year reign of leadership that expanded
  the cost, reach and size of the federal government and showed indifference to America's
  common-sense values."

  Of course, you know what passes for common sense in today's Washington, run as it is by the political
  affiliate of American business (aka, the Republican Party): appointment of industry veterans to critical
  regulatory posts, replacement of sharp oversight with friendly "partnership," elimination or evisceration
  of rules that business finds burdensome, harassment of veteran regulators who try to hold business
  accountable.

  Whitfield claims to be a hard-working congressman. My fear is, that may be true.