The November Elections and what a Dem win might mean

With all the talk about Democrats retaking the House and, maybe, the Senate this November, I got to thinking about what it might mean.

My guess is we will win enough seats to "retake" the House. That means that for a change, at least, we'll be able to conduct some investigations -- such as the uses put to the Iraq intelligence in making the case for war; adoption of torture and rendition as intelligence-gathering policies; and wiretapping. We can also look into things like gasoline pricing and energy manipulation.

We can also stem spending somewhat and counter a few Presidential and Senatorial excesses.

But aside from that, I don't see us being able to override Presidential vetos or doing something really important -- like stopping the Iraq War -- until 2008.

Right now, I think the country is thoroughly sick of Bush. Whether they are thoroughly sick of conservatives in general remains to be seen. I guess I'm wondering if all we'll get out of 2006 is really nasty gridlock.

I do think that if we fall short of getting the House in 2006 (always a possibility due to the way things are gerrymandered now), we'd really win big in 2008 because then, I think, conservatives as well as Bush will be so covered in tar that a Democratic sweep is almost a certainty.

I do think we need more of an agenda than we have now. I think that agenda should be tailored to the middle class -- national healthcare, fixing social security, tax fairness, tying the minimum wage to the cost of living, federalizing educational costs, cutbacks in globalization, and some perks like mandatory vacations for all.

We'll see what happens, I guess.

this bit about investigating the Puggies and all would require something like actual action on the part of the candy-assed Dems. With the exception of a few--Conyers, Obey, some others--they just haven't shown much of a disposition to oppose anything the Puggiesw wanted from them. I'm not sure I can count on them to do anything wth their majority.