What, specifically, did the Democrats win in 2006?

[Bobbieo]

[shadowknows69]

1. Another brief distraction from the imminent fall of Rome.

Another illusion to make us think the system works for us and not against us.

[pinto]

2. The House and Senate majorities.

:hi:

[demnan]

3. Oh the Democrats won some power all right

they just don't have the courage to use it, at least most of them don't.

[cali]

5. Right.

Pelosi's not using her power, nor is Conyers, or Boxer or Kennedy or Conrad, or Leahy or Schumer or dozens of others.

[KAZ]

14. You and I don't usually see eye to eye, ...

... but I've been nodding my head in agreement with most of which you've been posting the last few days. Good work Cali!

[mondo joe]

16. They're using the power they have. Pelosi didn't become Queen, y'know.

[pk_du]

4. Subpeona power....drip..drip..drip... n/t

[Bobbieo]

6. Why aren't the majority in Congress using their powers?

[Bitwit1234]

7. Lets telephone our rep and senator tomorrow or

Why don't we set aside a day to call not write or email because they don't pay attention. Call our senator or representative and tell them we are sick and tired of non-action. We want bush and his henchmen stopped now. We want an end to the republicans in congress blocking everything we try to do.

It was all over the news day in and day out calling the democrats obstructionist. WHY IN THE HELL DON'T OUR REPS GO ON TV AND SAY THE SAME THING. They screwed up the minimum wage bill, and everything else passed. What is the good of passing a bill if it does not get thru to become law.

The best thing to happen is to work or getting rid of bush and cheney and then maybe we can start to dig out of the hole republicans have put us in.

[Bobbieo]

9. I am so hearing impaired I seldom use the phone any more BUT

I sure sign every petition that comes in my e-mail and I am averaging 5 to 10 per day. I know my congressman is a hard nosed Democrat from Tucson but my two senators are Kyle and McCain - you figure it out!!!

[cali]

15. Yeah, I'm really gonna call Leahy and Sanders and Welch

and harangue them about how they don't do anything and I'm sick and tired of their inaction. That's just a brilliant idea.

[pinto]

8. 100-Hour Plan (via Wikipedia):

"The 100-Hour Plan is a United States Democratic Party political strategy detailing the actions the party pursued upon assuming leadership of the 110th Congress on January 4, 2007. The strategy was announced before the 2006 midterm elections. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has pledged that her party will continue to pursue these goals upon her assumption of leadership.<1><2> The 100-hour time period refers to business hours and not actual time, and began on the Tuesday (January 9, 2007) after the swearing-in ceremony on January 4. After it passes the House, legislation still has to pass the Senate and receive the President's signature (or override his veto) to become law.

By January 18, 2007, 87 business hours after the swearing-in, the House of Representatives had passed every one of the plan's measures in the form that they had been submitted to Congress.<3> These measures included all of those promised, with the exception of one of the recommendations of the 9/11 commission.<4> Legislation still has to pass the Senate and receive the President's signature (or override his veto) to become law."

<more, from Wikipedia:>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100-Hour_Plan

[Bobbieo]

10. Will we ever have the votes to ovrride Bush's vetos?

Can we convince enough Repubs to move to our side?

[pinto]

11. I hope so, especially on any egregious veto he may attempt. But,

I think the realistic chances are slim. We hold such a small majority in the Senate, at least for this session. (2008 may be a different matter.)

So far, the best moves I think we've made is to pass forward looking legislation, some admittedly compromised (as is the nature of legislative politics), and use our majority in the committee structures to call Bushco to task via hearings, public exposure, reestablishing a level of oversight, the clear subpoena threats from both the House and the Senate in re: the politicization of the federal attorney firings, and a basic check, however nascent, on this "unitary executive" scam.

(Just to name a few...)

I don't think we're done, by a long shot.

:hi:

[pinto]

12. As a follow up - I think the stem cell veto is his only one. Interestingly,

the States are moving forward to fund stem cell research outside any federal interference. California has recently allocated a chunk of funds to research institutions here...

There's more than one way to skin a polecat.

:kick:

[Kelly Rupert]

13. The House and the Senate.

And that's huge. Don't pretend it isn't.