Now that Democrats have wrested control of the U.S. Senate, the parties are quarreling again over which of them has a mandate for its agenda. Liberals say President Bush has no mandate because he lost the popular vote and because the Supreme Court stopped the recount in Florida. Both sides imagine that the worst crime against democracy is to govern on the false pretense of having won a mandate.
Politicians love the power that comes with majority status, but they hate the responsibility.
From this standpoint, the Senate power shift offers each party an opportunity. Democrats, blessed with power, plan to use their committee chairmanships and the majority leader's control of the schedule to convene hearings and bring up issues that will put Republicans in politically awkward positions. Republicans, freed from responsibility, plan to ambush the new regime, guerrilla-style, with amendments that will put Democrats in politically awkward positions. Instead, hearings, bills, schedules, amendments, and votes will be orchestrated to create wedge issues for the next election. This isn't legislating.