Democracy regained

With control of Congress returned to another party, we should begin to see the oversight role properly used.

And that's just what the LA Times is reporting.

"The American people sent a clear message that they do not want a rubber-stamp Congress that simply signs off the president's agenda," said Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), who is in line to become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

"Instead, they have voted for a new direction for America and a real check and balance against government overreaching."

Conyers and other Democrats say that sort of scrutiny has been noticeably absent over the last six years. Democrats accuse Republicans of being complicit as Bush has led the nation into an unwinnable war and adopted economic polices that favor the affluent and big business.

...But even some scholars say recent GOP oversight has been lax. "This could be remembered as a historically unique period in which an administration got immunity from Congress to engage in errors with impunity," said Charles Tiefer, a University of Baltimore law professor and a former House counsel.

Sure, this wouldn't be American politics without the search for the truth taking on political bents. But that's OK; in fact, that's arguably what the Framers wanted. The three pillars of American government are supposed to be opposed. It's not efficient time-wise, but it worked for a couple hundred years. It's time for it to work again.

This comes on the heels of one branch of government deciding it was inconvenient to stop abdicating its power to another branch. It's pathetic, and it put the Constitution in peril.