ShareThisBy KEVIN DIAZ
Monday, November 20, 2006
With Democrats in control of the U.S. House, but little else in a divided government, analysts say you can score one for asphalt and sugar beets in Minnesota.
Long outliers in the minority, Reps. Jim Oberstar and Collin Peterson, both northern border Democrats, will take over committees critical to Minnesota: Oberstar, an avid bicyclist, will chair the Transportation Committee with the power to dole out massive public works projects; and Peterson, with deep farm roots in the Red River Valley, will take over the Agriculture Committee, which oversees farm subsidies that are critical to the rural economy.
Holding the chairmanships of two full U.S. House committees is believed to be a first in modern Minnesota history.
But even if the two veteran Democrats restore some of Minnesota's faded prominence in national affairs, political observers predict two years of potential conflict and paralysis as Democrats and Republicans pull in opposite directions on key issues such as taxes, deficits and the war in Iraq.
The differences were underlined in some of the election-eve trash talk between the two parties' leaders:
"(Democratic Leader) Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has made it clear they will raise taxes, coddle terrorists, and provide amnesty to illegal immigrants," said Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., the current House Speaker
Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., who heads the House Democrats' campaign committee, signaled that his party would more closely scrutinize the Iraqi reconstruction, a promise that many Democrats hope will translate into oversight hearings calling Bush administration officials on the carpet.
"The Republican Congress has sat idly by, rubberstamping every war measure and not doing their duty of oversight and accountability," Emanuel said.
While it seems unlikely that the next year or two will see landmark Democratic legislation, taking back control of the House gives Democrats a platform to air a populist agenda focused on raising the minimum wage and rolling back the tax cuts for people at the top income levels.
Since the Bush tax cuts were designed to expire unless renewed by Congress, a new Democratic House majority would be in the driver's seat on any further extensions.
"The big difference is that the majority gets to set the agenda," said Oberstar, who wants to focus the transportation committee on lake and river locks and second-tier airports. "It doesn't mean you finish where you start, but you set the agenda."
With a narrowly divided Senate _ and the threat of President Bush's veto pen _ it remains unlikely that any but the most bipartisan Democratic measures could make their way into law.
Where progress might come, political observers say, is on meat-and-potatoes legislation with no overarching partisan differences, including in transportation, energy and agriculture, where Minnesota could get a leg-up from the experience of its delegation.
"Agriculture and transportation are two of the most important committees for the state," said Barbara Rohde, a research fellow at the Humphrey Institute's Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota. "We're very lucky."
