ShareThisAn editorial / By Dale McFeatters
Friday, November 17, 2006
With the Republicans chastened and the victorious Democrats made cautious by the election outcome, Washington is enjoying a rare warm and fuzzy moment as the lawmakers and even the president embrace the spirit of conciliation and cooperation.
And, at least for the time being, they probably really mean it.
President Bush says he is willing to cooperate with the Democratic majority and his aides note that he did so as governor of Texas. Let's hope that over six years he hasn't forgotten how. He came into office having had more people vote for his opponent but made a conscious decision to govern as if elected by a landslide and ignored the Democrats.
The Democrats would be wise to take the president at his word and in dealing with congressional Republicans, let bygones be bygones. The temptation of revenge on Capitol Hill must be a powerful one.
In running the House, the Republican-run committees wrote legislation without reference to the Democrats. The Democrats were often prohibited from offering amendments on the floor and barred from conferences where last minute changes to legislation were made.
The result was some really bad legislation and a majority growing out of touch. The Democrats should be wary of doing the same. They need not offer the other cheek; just let the other party offer amendments.
In one area, the Democrats should not compromise _ oversight, the power of Congress to investigate the activities of the executive branch. It is a vital function of the legislative branch that the Republicans ignored. They were abetted by a White House that had a deep-rooted aversion to scrutiny of any kind. Had Congress been willing to ask embarrassing questions, they might have curbed both their own and the White House's worst excesses.
If the Democrats can withstand the tendency to make congressional investigations into political show trials, there is much that demands legislative scrutiny: The impact of the war on terror on civil liberties; the fate of the billions of dollars that have been poured into Iraq; the possible politicization of regulatory agencies and charges that government-funded science was skewed or suppressed if it contradicted White House ideology; and the Bush administration's overuse of the secrecy stamp.
The congressional spirit of bipartisanship may last longer than usual this time because with leadership races in both parties, for the time being they're too busy fighting among themselves to fight with each other.
