Allan's Taboo Topics

Not all that much will really change with Democratic control of Congress.

1. They’re not going to impeach anybody, especially with Rumsfeld gone.
2. There won’t be much change of direction with the war in Iraq. This was an anti-Bush coalition; they’re not united for anything. One faction thinks the war was wrong to begin with and another thinks it is badly executed. They won’t agree on what to change.
3. They’ll roll over and let Bush do whatever he wants to do against Iran, just like many of them did at the start of the war against Iraq. There will be a few bolder speeches this time but not enough to win a vote.
4. They won’t repeal the Military Commissions Act or the worst parts of the Patriot Act. After all, Hilary might need those powers.
5. Nothing will be done about global warming, because it won’t get bad until after everyone’s last term.
6. They’ll revise some ethics rules, but we will eventually discover that different is not necessarily better.
7. A slightly different set of big business interests will get special favors.
8. They will still appropriate funds for bridges to nowhere.
9. They might actually pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Rove will explain to Bush what a veto is and point out that even if Bush doesn’t care personally, the Republican Party still has to face the voters in 2008.
10. Senator Clinton won’t undertake any initiatives as part of the majority. She will keep a low profile except at carefully calculated moments, so as to avoid having much of a record for anyone to bring up against her in her presidential bid in 2008. If she’s too conservative it will alienate the Democratic Party activists in the primaries and caucuses, and if she’s too liberal it will cost her the general election.
11. Closeted conservative figures will continue to be outed.

And finally, one prediction for something they will do. They’ll raise the minimum wage. That will pass.

[Originally published in 2006.]

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 25th, 2009 at 20:34 and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.