One thing becomes very, very clear to me as we have watched the NeoCons dance away from scandal after scandal -- Democrats need to control the House in '06 to make any of this stick.
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The Republicans learned from their mistakes in Watergate. The scandals of the Reagan and Bush41 administrations were covered up, and glossed over, and the minor fall guys were pardoned. Some of the convicted felons, like Abrams and Poindexter, are part of the current administration.
So even having a majority in the house is not a guarantee of success. But I think that it's the only way to make it possible.
Is this our 1994? Can Nancy Pelosi be our Newt Gingrich? Where is our Contract With America?
David Dreier, chair of the House Rules Committee, will never really investigate his pal Tom Delay. Would Louise Slaughter, currently the ranking Democrat? Oh yeah.
Denny Hastert will never lead on any issue, but certainly not on impeachment. Would Nancy Pelosi? Better believe it.
The minority party in the Senate has many more tools at their disposal, than does the minority party in the house -- including the filibuster, but also a tradition of deliberation and consultation, and nonpartisanship behind closed doors. These traditions have been threatened lately, but not yet fully expunged.
The house, by contrast is run as an absolute tyranny by the majority. So let's be that majority. Let's focus all of our energy on the House.
There are currently 205 Democrats. If 95% of them win, which is average, that would mean we lose 10 seats, and would have to pick up at least 23 seats, or 10% of the current Republican seats. That is twice the average incumbent loss rate, which means we would have to win 12 more races than average.
If we only lose half the expected number of Democratic seats, we would only have to win 18 currently-Republican districts, or 6 more than expected.
There will be plenty of time in the last two years of this administration to expose them for the crooks, liars and killers that they are. Let's spend the next 14 months making sure that Nancy Pelosi is in line to become president when Cheney goes to jail and Bush resigns.
I personally will be working to defeat David Dreier in my home town. Who are you taking down?