Making hay out of gusset plates

Minnesota Democrat James Oberstar, who represents Duluth and the Iron Range, is upset because the National Transportation Safety Board won't have a hearing into the 35W bridge collapse while the investigation is ongoing. Of course, he was also upset when it was announced by the NTSB that the design of the gusset plates was looked at as a major cause of the bridge collapse. Oh, Oberstar is the chair of the House Transportation Committee. I don't mean to read into this, but I wonder if Oberstar is upset because he (and the rest of the Minnesota DFL) couldn't pin it on Tim Pawlenty, or more specifically, former MNDOT commissioner Carol Molnau (who is "former" due to what could objectively be called a witchhunt). The supposed purpose of a public hearing would be to quell political debate in Minnesota. Again, I don't mean to question motives, but is the fact that a Democratic representative and the two Dem members of the board are calling for this meeting kind of making it more political? Have they not already received what they wanted, the scalp of Molnau on a platter? Of course, they do want it to be more political. I think there are a lot of people in the DFL party who want to hold all the levers of state power. The fact that a Republican is the governor craws at them. And, having a public hearing in DC about the bridge collapse could show that maybe there weren't enough inspections, so by proxy they can pin the whole thing on Pawlenty, or more generally the GOP, hence throwing the GOP bums out next time around. I doubt it gets much more political than that.