Rep. Pelosi Shopping For New Gavel.

In the final days leading up to the much pronounced Democrat re-taking of the House, there is a lot of Republican fear mongering to their base about what will befall America and no, it's not a pretty picture. So far in various races we've heard colloquial ethnic slurs, a veiled threat that electing an African-American will lead inevitably to interracial sex with white women, and the ritualistic slandering of Democrats as disrespecting our troops abroad, even if it is against someone who has actually served. If the Democrats do win, and I am not conceding anything here, including their ability to lose even their own primary, will this really change the atmosphere in Washington? Or will it just be politics as usual?

Let's say the Democrats win a majority in the House next week as everyone is screaming must happen, what the hell does that mean? Does that mean that George W, Rummy and the Prince of Darkness are all taken to Gitmo? Will the righteous be raised high and the wicked laid low? Will, at last, the God-damned lion and lamb set aside their differences and lay beside one another? And will someone finally find out what happened on 9/11? Probably not. If the Democrats do win the most effective strategy they could employ is to hold hearings into what's been happening these past six years. They can lift up some pretty big rocks and see what crawls out. There has been enough illegal activity and incompetence in this Administration to hold hearings from now until the next Red Sox World Series victory. However, without a Democrat retaking of the Senate which everyone is screaming can not happen, the House hearings may have little effect. The Senate, if it wishes, can create separate and parallel hearings and if the Republicans hold the Senate I can guarantee you that their findings will be wildly divergent from a Democrat House. This will, in turn, ensure abject confusion and ambivalence of the American public. So is a Democrat victory in the House all for naught?

No. But if you're looking for immediate gratification, as most of us Americans demand, you will be disappointed. However, you will see a big change in what the government is talking about and, as a result, what will be reported on the news. The White House will no longer be able to call Majority Leader Hastert and say "Why don't you guys talk about something other than Iraq or Mark Foley or Katrina or Valerie Plame or Nuclear Proliferation". That will now be the decision of the Democrats as well as the control of what committees will look into and regardless of the outcome of these hearings, there will be some laundry done in the public square. At these hearings you will hear things like "bribery", "war profiteering" and "impeachment". In the end, however, the President will still be the President, there will still be troops in Iraq and 40 million Americans will still have no medical insurance.

The long term problem for the Democrats will be if they take control of the House and do nothing. This will most likely ensure that they will re-lose the House, the Senate and the Oval in 2008 and make their issues irrelevant for the next election cycle. If they simply sit in committees pointing fingers at who did what to whom and why we are in the current situation, they are doomed. I am not advocating a turn the other cheek policy, far from it. I hope the Democrats put some high ranking officials behind bars, but if they don't fix the problem in front of them first, they may have to postpone their Oval Office strategies until 2016.