Posted by
Always To The Right on Sunday, January 07, 2007 11:13:52 PM
The below is from a Weekly Standard article which can be read here
Democrats are not powerless. They can make life in Washington
unpleasant for the Bush administration. They can turn oversight
hearings into partisan show trials. They can bombard the administration
with subpoenas. They can leak what they find to the press. They can
recommend Bush appointees for criminal prosecution.
But they cannot stop the president from deploying more troops in
Iraq to secure Baghdad, as he is expected to do soon. And while they
can reject confirmation of Bush's nominees for United Nations
ambassador, director of national intelligence, and deputy secretary of
state, Bush can respond with recess appointments. The Democrats'
ultimate weapon is a cutoff of funds for Iraq, but they have said they
won't use this weapon, for now anyway.
One might suppose the White House would be chastened, given Bush's
dismal public approval rating. Bush and his aides aren't. Instead,
they're amused by Democratic pretensions of being in charge of
Washington. "It's just hilarious," an aide says. "They've got to
legislate. We govern. We run things." Presidents, even unpopular ones,
usually do.