Democrats forge ahead

Looks like Congress is headed for a seismic shift on the scale of 1994, if not bigger.

This is somewhat alarming since if the Republicans lose control of the House, the government will be without a strong voice for dealing firmly with illegal immigration. But perhaps the people themselves can supply that voice. The public mood is very strong and engaged on the issue, and this is, after all, the age of the internet.

Besides, frankly, I have a hard time thinking of any issue on which the Republicans have really earned unstinting support other than illegal immigration -- and even on that issue it's only the House Republicans that do, while those in the Senate have basically been AWOL and President Bush is firmly on the wrong side.

Perhaps it's for the best. A Democrat-controlled Senate could block any further Supreme Court nominations that might threaten Roe vs. Wade and other crucial guarantees of individual freedom. It's hard to see how the Democrats could be any worse on spending than the Republicans have been lately. The military is commanded by the President, not Congress, so the risk of a disastrous premature withdrawal from Iraq seems low. And a good hard smackdown of the Republicans this year might awaken them to the need to disengage themselves from the hard right and move back toward the center when choosing their Presidential nominee in 2008 -- a point the rank and file already gets.