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----When the democrats take the House by a somewhat comfortable margin on Tuesday, they'll gain the crucial powers to issue subpoenas and conduct investigations into the myriad lies, scams and malfeasance of the neocon Bush junta. They will be like the proverbial kids in the candy store of corruption and criminality. Where to start? What to choose? They would do well to approach these matters in the most useful and effective sequence, both substantively and politically.
----There are so many scandals and crooked deals to investigate,... so many constitutional transgressions to be reversed or dismantled. Democratic supporters are apt to be in a rush to get to the bottom of Plame, Gannon, Abramoff, et al, all in a headlong rush,... or to take legislative aim at the Patriot Act, NSA domestic spying or the Military Commissions Act with similar haste. That would be too many things going on at the same time. The significant uptake on how this administration has operated could be substantially lost on the public,... waylaid and diluted by squishy media and a general atmosphere of confusion. This could cost the democrats the positive trajectory of "popular awareness" they have enjoyed for some time now. Campaigning, in the sense of securing public trust, awareness and approval, does not end on Wednesday. The democrats have to keep engineering their ultimate comeback, and here is what they should do.
----Go after VP Cheney's secretive Energy Panel meetings first, with the logical emphasis falling on Enron, Halliburton and Big Oil, and the question of "Why were these meetings so secret?" Tactically and strategically, this is the democrats' best course.
----The issues accruing to the NSA, to the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act would all entail dragging White House counsel into the action. Gonzalez could exercise his ponderous ability to obfuscate. Partisan security divisions would be called into play. Terrorism and "the war" would hold too much sway on the arguments being advanced. National security would become the litmus test of every inquiry. It would get convoluted and nasty where the general electorate was concerned. And the democrats might only have the House. It will be too early for constitutional issues. The Energy Panel meetings offer the best, safest opportunity to keep the public's perception on a productive path towards complete rejection of the neocons.
----We encounter the broadest degree of popular electoral agreement on issues like Enron's fraud and Halliburton's likely overcharges to the government. People don't like cheats. And reasoning suggests that Cheney's Energy Panel meetings, coming in advance of even the 9-11 attacks, may offer a chilling blueprint of the administration's pre-ordained agenda that was yet to come. Were those oil companies and energy barons sitting there with Uncle Dick,... planning the partitioning of Iraq's oil resources? Sure they were.
----Would Jeff Skilling help us out now, in exchange for a little plea-bargaining? Are other Enron whistle-blowers in a position to shed some light on the meetings? Or on the energy-price rape of California? And looking into Halliburton's activities necessarily calls into question the actions of Cheney throughout the entire affair. We get to question the VP, and it isn't even about a contested constitutional issue. Convenient, eh?
----In fact, the Energy Panel meetings would likely afford a roadmap to virtually every rotten thing this administration has done since it took office. It is apart from the partisan security passions of lingering neocon dupes,... and it can be made to resonate with all the same folks who rejected the Social Security giveaway. Once the democrats secure an even greater percentage backing from the general electorate,.... THEN they can go on to bigger and better investigations. THEN the public will be ready to sit up straight and pay attention to the constitutional arguments which have to be made in contesting the usurpation of the executive branch.
----You have to walk before you can run. I hope the democrats remember this.
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