Lots of fun until something explodes
Gerard Baker in the Times has a view of the next couple of years that means plenty of good TV for all — until something important blows up, of course:
[T]he outlines of a tumultuous couple of years are hoving into view. Democrats are in angry and buoyant mood. Out there in the salons of San Francisco and the shopfloors of Ohio, they want blood. Vengeful anti-Bush sentiment is as splenetic as it is on the Left Bank or the West Bank. The party’s leaders are eager to dismiss the idea that their control of the fearsome legislative and supervisory powers of Congress will turn the next two years into an orgy of Iraq war recrimination and investigation of the Bush White House.
But they are already geared up for inquiries into weapons of mass destruction claims, conduct of the war and the awarding of postwar contracts to well-connected American companies. Investigations have a way of creating their own momentum. Once the Pandora’s box of secrets is forced open by congressional subpoena, there’s no telling what will be left.
In policy terms, Democratic control will also have more far-reaching consequences than the party currently indicates. Democrats will not cut off funding for the war. But the political climate for maintaining the large US commitment will surely become intolerable. By the end of next year it will be astonishing if there are as many as half the current US troops in Iraq.
The same pressure will apply to other foreign policy fields. President Bush is under no constitutional constraint to get approval from Congress if he decides he needs to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. But in his likely political predicament, beset by investigations, limping towards retirement, it is not hard to guess what might be the fallout if he did choose that route.
Don’t forget President Pelosi!