If you screw up in Washington, D.C., you better hope that U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill doesn't take an interest in you. During a Senate hearing last November, the Missouri Democrat challenged Arnold Fields, the retired general overseeing a $52 billion reconstruction effort in Afghanistan, and she didn't mince words. "I don't mean to be cruel," she told Fields. "I don't think you're the right person for this job." Two months later, Fields, still icing his gonads, resigned. That's how Clairebear rolls. She says what she thinks, and things get done. This summer, after discovery of corruption in the way Arlington National Cemetery hired contractors — and of 200 or more unmarked or mislabeled graves — McCaskill was a leader in calling for the cemetery to get its affairs in order. And when she found out that federal workers owe about $1 billion in back taxes, she introduced legislation calling for employees to settle up with Uncle Sam or be fired. And although she took it on the chin earlier this year during Planegate, it hasn't stopped her from giving idiots hell.
