Democrats in power

Election day is still two weeks away, and nothing is certain. There is still lots of work to do, and lots of surprises from both sides. But it is looking increasingly likely that the Democrats will take over the House, and an outside chance they will take the Senate as well. So perhaps now is a good time to express to Democrats what they should do if they take charge.

Some Democrats will feel that they need to roll over and play nice to usher in a new era of "bipartisanship" because that's what the voters want. Doing so would be a mistake of such a magnitude that it would dwarf almost all others in political history. If Democrats win, it is because voters want them to put the Republicans up against the wall, not in spite of it.

I always thought that if there was the barest plurality of voters in favor of things like investigations into the intelligence that led to the Iraq war, or investigations into war profiteering by Halliburton et al (say 41% in favor, 40% against, with the rest undecided) that Democrats should go all out. But that's not the case; polls show that solid majorities want the Democrats to thoroughly investigate the misdeeds of the Bush administration. This is why Democrats are poised to make such a huge sweep. They need to follow through. They need to go to the mat. They need to stake their careers on this, for if they get soft, 2008 will be very unpleasant indeed.

When Republicans run on tax cuts and win, do they go soft after the election and start talking about not cutting taxes and maybe funding programs instead? Of course not. They cut taxes twice as much as they said they would. Democrats cannot afford to become weak should they win. If they do, they will enrage both the Democratic base and the independents that voted for them to clean up Washington.