MSNBC has a pretty accurate look forward to a world in which Democrats retake the House. bearish as I may be on our prospects for doing so, I'm also a tad concerned that expectations are overly high for what such a victory would mean. Progressives have been so frozen out of power that the recapture of a single House of Congress may look more powerful and promising than it really is.
For many key Democrats, the emerging strategy -- should they win some congressional control this November -- appears to be to try to score legislative victories where possible, thwart GOP initiatives, and wage an aggressive oversight campaign to expose what they see as Bush administration shortcomings and neglected national problems. They hope that the high-profile hearings and investigations they plan to hold as part of their 2007-08 oversight effort will lay the groundwork for more-sweeping legislative changes after the presidential election, when they may have widened their congressional majorities and perhaps captured the White House.
The piece -- the first in a series -- largely focuses on congressional oversight, namely under Henry Waxman. But honestly, I can't see what the next in the series will be. Unless Democrats take both chambers of Congress, they'll be able to offer little more than a check on Bush's power. Stopping bad legislation and forcing accountability will be in their grasp, but large legislative victories will not.
