The New York Times editorial board has some advice for the Democrats.
The Democratic majority in Congress has a moral responsibility to address all these issues: fixing the profound flaws in the military tribunals act, restoring the rule of law over Mr. Bush’s rogue intelligence operations and restoring the balance of powers between Congress and the executive branch. So far, key Democrats, including Mr. Leahy and Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, chairman of a new subcommittee on human rights, have said these issues are high priorities for them.
We would lend such efforts our enthusiastic backing and hope Mr. Leahy, Mr. Durbin and other Democratic leaders are not swayed by the absurd notion circulating in Washington that the Democrats should now “look ahead” rather than use their new majority to right the dangerous wrongs of the last six years of Mr. Bush’s one-party rule.
This is a false choice. Dealing with these issues is not about the past. The administration’s assault on some of the nation’s founding principles continues unabated. If the Democrats were to shirk their responsibility to stop it, that would make them no better than the Republicans who formed and enabled these policies in the first place.
If you want to know whether the Democrats can be successful in a direct constitutional confrontation with the President, it’s informative to see that there is one very important cog in the mainstream media machine saying ‘We would lend such efforts our enthusiastic backing’.
That’s a start. The Washington Post is probably going to stick to their ‘absurd notion…that the Democrats should now “look ahead”’, but one out of two ain’t bad. Let’s get it started.
