So... what IF Democrats capture both houses of Congress in November?

[Writer]

The question is: and then what? Here's a thread where you can take a moment to :think:

[LeftCoast]

1. Then I get to make fun of all the doom & gloomers who come to every

thread and say "But Diebold will just steal it"

:)

[snowbear]

2. If we capture both houses.. Bills like this one would be passed..

Bill Would Allow Congress To Sue Bush
Author Is Republican Sen. Arlen Specter

Jul 24, 2006 8:57 pm US/Pacific

(AP) WASHINGTON A powerful Republican committee chairman who has led the fight against President Bush's signing statements said Monday he would have a bill ready by the end of the week allowing Congress to sue him in federal court.

http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_205235921.html

[Ragin1]

3. Haven't we learned yet??

Nada dimes worth of difference. The crony set will change. Congress will bilk us of our money. War sales and fat contracts will continue. We may have a more gentle foreign policy.

[snowbear]

4. I take it you're not a Democrat, Ragin?

What on earth prompted you to join a Democratic forum?

..... (( ))

[DRoseDARs]

8. Don't know what planet you're from, but cronyism knows no political party

The Republicans have mastered this fine art and taken it to new levels, but don't think for one second that politicians of a different shade aren't capable too. It's why the Democrats lost majority control for several decades last century: Control breeds complacency and corruption. This endlessly goes back and forth and now it's the Republicans turn to lose the game. We can hope that the stream of bullshit over the past 6 years will cost the Republicans their control for a few decades too and the Dems learn from it all.

[Ragin1]

10. What prompted?

I have to admit to despising the raygun administration by it's end. Once again looking forward to Clintons, and despising it by the second term. It only took me until the cfr bill was signed to despise this one. Guess I'm out there in the ozone in my own idealogy. I come to DU every day to get perspective from the left. I think we are all in this together, and don't consider any wing the enemy.

[The Wielding Truth]

16. Welcome Ragin1. It's good you want to search for truth in this mess.

Hope that you can see that DU has a lot a common concerns over the direction unethical greedy behavior propagated by this administration has taken the world.

Can we afford to ignore diplomacy and impose any religious fundamental views on others? You can see how democracy should defend individual rights and promote scrutiny in government to defend the balance of power. Federal government must be capable of rendering aid to the general public through a well maintained system of rational experienced and compassionate, specificly networked programs.

BushCo has no desire to perfect or even manage this system. Profit is driving them and profit is not the goal of democracy, although it is conducive to a strong economy even without war. Democracy is all of us learning, sharing, respecting, and growing to promote the common good of this nation and the world.
Your views are part of our community. Don't ya love the way this was all planned to work?:kick:

[Sparkly]

41. Financing, corruption, deals w/lobbyists, etc. cross both sides, BUT

On many important issues, there are enormous differences in philosophy and policy. (One, in fact, involves Congressional oversight and presidential powers.)

As for "gentle foreign policy" -- as long as they're leading the Pentagon and State Dept., I'm not so sure about that.

[Greyhound]

5. were that to happen, it would be a remarkable opportunity to institute

great accomplishments, on the scale of the 60's or the 30's.

[MarkDevin]

6. I wouldn't count on it, though.

Yes, things will be better with the Democrats in charge; but how much better, I'm not willing to bet.

[opihimoimoi]

7. It would be way better than whot we got now...which is Photo Op Diplomacy

and Governance

[Lasher]

19. And faith-based economic policies (EOM)

[Greyhound]

36. At least they will replace the gilding on the cage bars.

a la WJ Clinton.

[Cobalt-60]

9. Gridlock!

Much of the damage done by Chimpy and company will take years to repair.
And these repairs won't start with a hostile primate in the Oval Office.
There will be two years of gridlock, which will be an improvement over what we have now.
It will be the end of Big Business writing legislation for the congress.
I look for some really bad behavior on the part of big business. They don't give up easily. And they'll do anything to get their stooges back into power, as we've seen.
One thing I look forward to is kicking the GOPs while they're down.
But we need to win it first.

[Greyhound]

37. LOL!!

"It will be the end of Big Business writing legislation for the congress."

Funniest sentence today. :rofl:

[KitSileya]

11. I guess that depends on what kind of Democrats we get.

If we get Lieberman and Zell Miller-clones, not much will change, I bet. If we get Paul Wellstone-like Senators and Congresspeople, then watch out - the 110th Congress might become revered like no other in the history of the US.

[LynneSin]

13. Read my post below - stop thinking floor votes

:grr:

Personally that means squat to me.

Think John Conyers and Henry Waxman with the power to Subpeona. Geez, that concept alone is giving me goosebumps!

[KitSileya]

14. I wrote in another thread today,

that if we get a majority through Lieberman and his ilk, we would get committees, and get some of our agenda through, but if we get Lamont and his ilk, we'd get more of our agenda through. I do realize that getting a majority, regardless of with whom, will mean that we get to set the legislative agenda for the 110th Congress. But some Democrats have shown an alarming tendency to side, not with their own party, but with the Republicans. What use will it be for Conyers and co to make bills to usher in a second New Deal if people in their own party work against them because they serve their corporate and fundamentalist masters? I'm not saying that getting a Democratic majority won't be better than a Republican majority, but how much better wouldn't it be if we could get a Wellstone-Democratic majority rather than a Miller-Democratic majority?

Conyers might get his subpoena power, but what good would it do if these wolves in sheep clothing wote against an impeachment, regardless of what he finds? If they refuse to vote to reinstate the estate tax, or repeal the tax cuts for the rich, or they force the Democrats to choose a centrist nominee for the next SCOTUS appointment, leaving us with a centrist-right SCOTUS rather than one that would protect the people instead of corporations?

[LynneSin]

17. But if we have a republican in that seat

we'll get even less.

And don't fool yourself into thinking we're getting an impeachment. WE don't have the 60+ votes need in the senate to remove Bush and to be honest, there are much more pressing issues at hand. WE all learned back in 1998 that impeachments without having a senate that can support it means nothing but wasted tax dollars and irritation to the electorate who grows tedious of politicians using impeachment as a tool to get back at the opposing party.

And btw, shame you didn't research the record of Patrick Leahy's Judicial Committee record when he had control back in 2001-2. I'll take a slew of Liebermans just to gain control of that committee because there are NO 'Gang of 14' members on it and very unlikely any will see it. And there was about 10 activist judges that never got out of committee which means no worry about how the filibuster turns out SINCE THERE WON'T BE A FLOOR VOTE.

People who make lame-ass excuses about judicial nominations in a democrat majority failing clearly need to research how the judicial nomination works in the first place.

BTW, when we lost a seat in the judiciary committee - that person was John Kerry who step off the committee so if we get the majority he would probably get that new extra seat we would earn

[KitSileya]

23. Wasn't that what I said?

We don't want the seats to go to Republicans, but we want them to go to the most Democratic Democrats if they go to Democrats. Several Democrats have shown an alarming tendency to not vote with their party, but rather join hands with Republicans and support Bush instead. That's something most Democrats don't want. That's why they try to get the best Democratic candidates in the election, and they do that by voting for those candidates in the primaries. If they fail, and get DINOs instead, most will still vote for the Democratic candidate. And of course, that's what we want, because if a majority of the representatives have a 'd' behind their name, we get the power in committees and such like.


As for the presumption that "centrist" candidates will attract voters from the other side, I can only as, why vote for Republican-lite if you can get Republican instead? Many traditional Republicans (not the braindead Bushbots) feel that the Democrat party simply doesn't stand for anything - if we get true progressive who can show where they stand on issues and keep standing there even under pressure, I think it will go a long way to convince non-Democratic voters that the Democrats are once again a party for the common man and woman.

[Lasher]

20. Me too, Lynne!

And everyone is not aware that the puke majorities are not letting Democratic legislation come to the floor. That would change bigtime. I wonder if pay-go would again become part of the picture.

[LynneSin]

12. COMMITTEES!!!!

People who don't care about the democratic majority in the pursuit of purity democrats basically don't have a fricking clue how important those committees are and the fact that some very awesome democrats will be given some amazing powers

[gratuitous]

18. Yep -- Chairman Waxman with the power of subpoena

And Chairman Conyers.

And Chairman Kennedy.

And Chairman Clinton.

All setting the agendas for their committees, holding the hearings and calling the witnesses. The prospect causes Crashcart to check the flight schedules to Rio while groping for his nitro pills.

[Lasher]

21. And Chairman Rockefeller

Jay would steamroll Pat Roberts on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

[Greyhound]

35. But you are making the unfounded assumption that they

will use those committees to bring justice to those that perpetrated the crimes, and that includes quite a few Democrats, therefore it is unlikely that anything of substance will result.

This does not mean that I'll be voting for any re:puke: candidates, nor do I support any part of their agenda.

[Greyhound]

39. Cowards! n/t

[Awsi Dooger]

15. I wouldn't have to worry about internet sports betting being banned

Assuming the senate doesn't take it to a vote this fall, the damn GOP House will certainly try again next year. Right now it's the heyday with one site after another trying to compete with lesser juice, signup bonuses, and other goodies.

[welshTerrier2]

22. my "Top 10" glorious changes if the Dems win the House and Senate

first, of course, we'd finally get some investigations of the corrupt bush regime ... that's only true if Democrats aren't stupid enough to "usher in a new era of 'bi-partisanship'" ... it would be nice to break through some of the cover-ups and the lies ... i think the odds are good that real investigations would occur ... perhaps the most powerful perpetrators in the current administration should be turned over to the World Court to face charges of war crimes ...

second, we would finally see the corrupting influence of big money kicked out of Washington ... instead of catering to lobbyists and big donors, Democrats would reinvigorate our democracy and return all power to where it belongs: to "we the people" ...

third, Democrats would call for massive cuts in the defense budget which is the shining star of corporate welfare ... only important and necessary programs would be retained ... the others would finally be outed as wasteful spending that only weakens the nation ...

fourth, Democrats would immediately terminate all spying on US citizens even if bush finally agreed to first get the approval of the FISA court ... in the end, they'd see that spying on US citizens is just plain wrong and that the issue is greater than just a battle between the branches of government ...

fifth, Democrats would put an end to US imperialism ... our foreign policy would reflect our laws and our values and no longer be conducted solely for "special interests" ... the cycle of endless war being fought to generate oil revenues would finally be ended ...

sixth, Democrats would call for radical changes inside the US to address global warming ... cars would be either banned or substantially restricted ... Democrats would no longer only call for a very gradual transition to alternative fuels ... Democrats would endorse a vision that would have mass transit replacing the automobile wherever possible ...

seventh, Democrats would recognize that democracies cannot exist with widely disparate levels of wealth and income ... they would make laws that, while not forcing absolute equality, would recognize that the gap today between rich and poor must be narrowed ...

eighth, Democrats would strongly support all laws that demand freedom and equality for all citizens ... issues like gay marriage would be supported because every citizen should have the exact same rights as every other citizen ... nonsense about civil unions or "letting the states decide" would be brushed aside because every citizen should have equal rights guaranteed by the US Constitution ...

ninth, Democrats would work hard to balance the budget and make the really tough choices, painful choices, to restore fiscal sanity ...

and tenth, Democrats would call for a "new American revolution (peaceful)" to restore the soul and spirit of the American ideal ...

these are just some of the changes I would expect to see if the Democrats were able to capture both the House and Senate this November ... no, i'm afraid i'm not at all serious ... i wish i were ...

[reprat]

24. Being Negative will hurt

Mark my words!! If the Democratic party pushes for impeachment before winning anything, we will lose everything!!!! Why can't Dems stick together by expressing hope for a better future, a brighter America under Dem power? We should concentrate all our energy towards the one goal of uniting this country instead of keeping the division as strong as the wacky Repubs like to see it continuing. Our goals should be simple. Forget about Bush. Fix what's wrong in our country, wipe out the negativity spreading throughout the land and look toward the future.

[welshTerrier2]

25. "fix what's wrong in our country"

welcome to DU, reprat !!!

did you mean to respond to my post or to the OP (opening post)? i didn't make any mention of impeachment at all in what I wrote ...

in my post, i described 10 items i thought were critically needed to heal the soul of America ... the problems we face go well beyond merely ousting republicans ... the country is in serious trouble ... the whole world is in serious trouble ... politics are obviously critically important but the changes we need will not come about solely by changing parties ... we need to fight for the things we believe in even within our own party ...

i don't see this as being negative at all except to say that i'm afraid we're not making much progress ... the current crop of party elite seems to prefer a sort of political status quo where they just keep rerunning the same old incumbents who resist change ... that's not a healthy situation ...

we critically need to build unity but doing so has to be real and it has to be earned by finding common ground ... for me, just winning, regardless of the agenda, is not common ground ...

[reprat]

29. New Blood

WelshTerrier, No, I was not implying you mentioned impeachment-just stating the obvious of which others keep saying. I too believe we need to make drastic changes in this country, regardless of party. I find that those currently in Washington are too isolated (Dems) and insulated(Repubs) to fix what needs fixing. It's high time for new blood!!!I spent four years, two terms as a state legislator (Dem) and am a party loyalist for over thirty years yet can not get a response from anyone, unless they want money or want me to work a campaign. I am SERIOUSLY thinking of running in 08 under the slogan Together, as One America. I am not rich, nor a polished politician. Instead I am a "regular" American, one who has lived a lifetime of hardship, raised 4 children of my own and numerous foster children who sees what's wrong and who is being wronged in this country on a daily basis. It makes me angry enough to want to do something about it, I'll tell ya that! I have many ideas on how to fix what ails us as a nation (if anyone is interested), most of it is the old-fashioned ideal of "common sense" which is sorely lacking in politics today. If I have my way, I will run (no, I am not a nut), and ensure that everyone in this country is treated equally, I would eliminate homelessness, raise millions of Americans up from poverty, offer health insurance to every American citizen, eliminate tax cuts for the wealthy, provide a solid education K-14 for all, slow if not stop the rape and pillage the wealthy and corporations are hitting us all with, stop the carnage on our troops in Iraq, modify the tax system and ensure that no American ever goes without food, housing, heat, etc ever again!! Oh, there's more, but enough...

[welshTerrier2]

30. lots of very good ideas there ...

there are many DU'ers who are or have been candidates for offices of one kind or another ... i think it would be great if you decide to run again ... DU'ers can provide all sorts of help with your campaign ...

it's great when new people show up on DU and share their thoughts!!

[reprat]

31. POTUS

WelshTerrier, Thanks for the vote of confidence. If I do this, it will be as a "regular" American giving voice to those who they do not listen to. My main thrust would be to involve every American in the process of deciding what are the three most important issues facing this country. From high schools to veteran groups to local political orginizations to colleges and universities to soccermoms and the like. This idea I believe would and should unite this country as it ought to be. The US Constitution does not require that an individual should be rich and isolated from the rest of us to win the Presidency, does it? That is my thought-why can't a "normal" law-abiding American citizen change the world, run and win the White House? If not me, than who? I feel it's time we elect one who is not beholding to anyone but another American citizen. Do you? Does anyone else agree? If so, let's take this to the next level and get serious, 'cuz I am.

[Greyhound]

38. "the odds are good that real investigations would occur"

"the corrupting influence of big money kicked out of Washington"

"massive cuts in the defense budget"

"Democrats would immediately terminate all spying on US citizens even"

"Democrats would recognize that democracies cannot exist with widely disparate levels of wealth and income"

"Democrats would strongly support all laws that demand freedom and equality for all citizens"

LMFAO!! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Have you entirely lost your memory prior to Jan. 2001?

[welshTerrier2]

40. i hope you read the last line of my post ...

it stated: "no, i'm afraid i'm not at all serious ... i wish i were ..."

as for losing all memory prior to Jan, 2001, i sometimes wish i could ...

[Greyhound]

42. You and me both. Yes, I did overlook it, my apologies.

I think a DU break is needed for me, my head is about to explode. Watching us pile on these distraction issues as if they were relevant, while all the real shenanigans slip by largely unnoticed or ignored is infuriating. :grr:

[paulk]

26. the number of threads trashing Democrats will triple

just sayin'

[calimary]

27. Then we ALL make a FULL COURT PRESS for IMPEACHMENT.

PERIOD.

As we all remind them RELENTLESSLY - THEY work for US. IT'S NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!!!

Sorry I'm shouting, but I'm SHOUTING!!!!

[Lindacooks]

28. Then we'll see. At least there will be a chance for change.

And I certainly hope that dramatic changes take place.

If not, then we rethink our strategy and rethink some of those whom we support.

[boolean]

32. Impeach Impeach Impeach

Then impeach again. Then one more time. Then a few more times. Then twice more. The impeach again.

[Zhade]

33. Little changes?

You can read that as either almost nothing changes, or small cosmetic changes are made.

(I'd love to be wrong, btw.)

[Seabiscuit]

43. Republicans will still control the voting because the DLC'ers will

continue to vote with them. That's why it's so important to dump the Liebermans of the party.

Until the progressives control Congress, the Democrat-Republican numbers game is meaningless.

[Nutmegger]

34. Investigations

then retribution.