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As they prepare to take control of Congress this week and face up to campaign pledges to restore bipartisanship and openness, Democrats are planning to largely sideline Republicans from the first burst of lawmaking. House Democrats intend to pass a raft of popular measures as part of their well-publicized plan for the first 100 hours. They include tightening ethics rules for lawmakers, raising the minimum wage, allowing more research on stem cells and cutting interest rates on student loans. But instead of allowing Republicans to fully participate in deliberations, as promised after the Democratic victory in the Nov. 7 midterm...

Sixty-one percent of Americans believe President Bush is not doing a satisfactory job. And more than 70% think the Republican Congress has failed to perform its job satisfactorily. The continuing war on terror is one reason, but so are congressional spending, earmark excesses, and the corruption of House Republicans DeLay, Ney, Cunningham and Foley. In the six years of this administration overall spending has risen by 49%, and nondefense discretionary spending has increased by an average of 7.7% a year. The number of congressional spending earmarks totaled 10,656 in fiscal 2004 (costing $23 billion), 13,997 in 2005 ($27 billion) and...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Signs that there could be a prolonged legal battle to determine control of the U.S. Senate, following Democratic capture of the House, could help send stocks lower when markets open Wednesday.Nasdaq and S&P futures indicated a lower Wednesday open.As of 3:15 a.m. ET, Democrats had gained 26 seats in the House, 11 more than needed for them to take control of the chamber for the first time in 12 years. They had also gained 4 Senate seats, two shy of what was needed for control. (CNN.com's election coverage)But futures declined a little further after there were...

Last week I argued that the media consensus that the GOP base is "dispirited" suffers from two analytical problems. First, it is underdetermined -- that is, there are other, equally reasonable but theoretically distinct, explanations that can account for the data. Second, using national data on dispiritedness to estimate the final balance of power in the House is impossible because of the ecological fallacy. All we have are polls that provide national data -- and the distribution of "dispirited" voters is what will make all the difference.I'd now like to take an opportunity to amplify what I mean by both...

What would a Democratic victory -- likely now but not certain in the House races, possible if all the close ones go their way in the Senate races -- mean? Would it mean that we are heading into a political realignment, to a time when Republican positions can no longer rally a majority?Not really, I think. Right now, it doesn't look like Democrats will end up with the kind of popular vote percentage in House elections won by their party in 1974 (up from 46 percent to 58 percent in two years) or Republicans in 1994 (up from 46 percent...

In recent weeks, the talk among pundits about the inevitability of Democratic triumph has simmered down. For some reason - one that I have not yet ascertained - Bush in the high-30s induces an entirely different storyline than Bush in the mid-30s. While the logic does not make sense, the result is nonetheless a move in the right direction. We seem to have returned to the much more sensible conversation that we were having in March: for the Democrats to win the House, they will actually have to do something.What do they have to do? This is the $2.3 trillion...

The last two weeks have brought a shift in the perception of the parties' electoral prospects. The President has enjoyed some good press in the last few news cycles, which seems to have had a positive effect on his job approval rating. The Democrats, meanwhile, are looking quite divided. The spectacle of Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, their best-known representatives, taking opposite stands on the issue of the day from the same podium was a stark indication of the division within the party. This has given the press pause in their rush to prejudge the November election. Many pundits have...

As Republicans have become increasingly nervous about whether they will be able to maintain control of the House in the midterm elections, they have resorted to the straw-man strategy of identifying a parade of horrors to come if Democrats gain the majority. Among these is the assertion that I, as the new chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, would immediately begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush. I will not do that. I readily admit that I have been quite vigorous, if not relentless, in questioning the administration. The allegations I have raised are grave, serious, well known, and based on...