Despite trepidations about the perceived political risks of being accused of opposing troops or being partisan, a majority of Congressional members believe that the mischief of the war in Iraq, the politicization of the Justice Department, the overt disregard of legal tradition, and the attempted seizure of near dictatorial control by the Executive are not Good Things.
The Republican Congress turned its back on oversight. Party discipline is an important force with Republicans. The Democratic Congress has awakened the memory that Congress is a coequal branch of government. The President is instructed by the Constitution to "see that the laws are faithfully executed." The Congress declares wars and provides the funds to fight them. The Congress can impeach any officers of the Government and remove them for offenses against the Government. The Congress can demand any information from the Executive that is relevant to an investigation about the faithful execution of the laws. Executive privilege does not extend to concealing evidence of crimes.
Bush has said that the President interprets the laws. He doesn’t. Courts do. (His signing statements are meaningless.) Bush is throwing down the gauntlet and making a play to vastly increase the power of the Executive branch to eclipse both other branches. The ongoing strategy to put Federalist Society automatons into judgeships proceeded without opposition from the Republican Senate, except when the Majority could not close debate.
Now things are different. Both houses have subpoena power. (It is fair to question why a tiny incremental majority should preclude Congressional investigations for partisan reasons. That is another essay.) Both houses will use it, and should vigorously enforce it. The US Attorney firings seems like an odd foot in the door, but if the conduct of the Justice Department appears not to be aligned with the principle of enforcing the laws without regard to political party, then that is fair grounds for inquiry.
Here is a practical idea. Impeach. Subpoena White House officials. If they don’t show up, impeach them for obstruction of justice. There is more than enough groundwork that supports the presumption that they have useful information about Executive malfeasance. The Constitution allows the House to impeach any official of the government. The Republicans are not going to allow any useful work to get done in the Senate anyway, so it might as well conduct trials. The evidence is strong for Gonzales and Rove. (Rove is the bastard that should be buried. Why does he have taxpayer paycheck?) Gonzales will resign to avoid embarrassment.
As far as the war in Iraq is concerned, there are good ideas already. The President accuses any effort to curtail his war as an endangerment of the troops. If the idea is to force the withdrawal of the troops, then cutting off funds for further operations does not put the onus on Congress to protect the troops. The President is Commander in Chief, and it is his responsibility to preserve the forces within the war making dictates of Congress.
Is that too simple? I believe that the 9/11 attack was facilitated, at the very least. Either that or our air defenses really suck. How did the second plane hit the other tower? We want to spend how many billions to be able to shoot down ballistic missiles?