Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I've been meaning to discuss this article from the Washington Post about the rise of the thirtysomethings in the Democratic leadership. What's striking about it is how much it departs from the norm in what it typically a seniority-driven body.

The young Democrats played an important role in helping their party take control of Congress, and now they are beginning to reap the benefits. Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who will become speaker of the House when her party assumes control of Congress next month, is making room for these and other young House Democrats, giving them opportunities they would not normally enjoy under the rigid seniority system that typically defines life in the Capitol.

Last week, Pelosi announced Wasserman Schultz will be a deputy chief whip and Meek and Ryan will serve on the party's steering committee, which sets policy and makes committee assignments, along with two incoming freshmen. In addition, Wasserman Schultz and Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) are being considered for a seat on the prestigious Ways and Means Committee, which sets tax policy, and Meek is vying for a seat on the Appropriations Committee.

"Some members have waited four or five terms to be a member of Appropriations or Ways and Means," said Meek, who hauled an oversized rubber stamp to the House floor to argue that the Republican Congress was in lockstep with the White House. "The fact that an incoming third-termer is even being considered is evidence that Speaker Pelosi is committed to giving opportunities to younger members to participate in real policymaking."

In fact, Davis and Meek did get on Ways and Means (full list here), and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Tim Ryan nabbed spots on the Appropriations Committee (full list here).

The Democratic share of the youth vote is large and growing, so it's only natural for the caucus to highlight its younger members, and give them a greater say in legislative matters. But the party should be a meritocracy, with the strongest voices naturally rising to the top. In this case, those preferences are neatly aligned: the young Democrats are fantastic carriers of the brand, and ought to be out in front.

But the youth movement isn't the only thing that's different with the 110th Congress. The leadership is making bold steps to take control of both Iraq spending and intelligence oversight and funding. The Congress has been unwilling to use the power of the purse in recent years, but these steps indicate that they will do so. It is absurd that funding for the war has continued to be processed through emergency supplemental requests three years after the invasion of Baghdad. And placing oversight and funding for intelligence agencies under the same panel will create more motivation for the agencies to do better work. This was a key recommendation of the 9-11 Commission, and it's important to cut through the spin here.

In 2004, the commission urged Congress either to create a House-Senate intelligence panel or grant the House and Senate intelligence committees the power not only to oversee the nation's intelligence agencies but also to fund them and shape intelligence policy. The intelligence committees' gains would come at the expense of the Armed Services committees and the Appropriations panels' defense subcommittees, which now control intelligence spending. But, the commissioners said, intelligence agencies were routinely ignoring the intelligence committees because those panels did not have the power of the purse.

Because Pelosi opted for the oversight/intelligence proposal rather than the joint panel, Republicans are actually trying to say that she didn't fulfill her campaign promise to enact all of the 9-11 Commission's recommendations. True geniuses, aren't they. You can't enact BOTH a joint panel and empower the separate panels with funding capabilities. It was set out by the 9-11 Commission as an either/or scenario. And shockingly, despite writing this paragraph, the WaPo still fell for the spin. Here's the second graf, ABOVE the one that lays out the true story:

The twin moves demonstrated the delicate balance that Pelosi (D-Calif.) is trying to strike to maintain her political power while fulfilling the promises of the Democrats' successful 2006 campaign. Both decisions fall short of recommendations coming from the bipartisan commission that examined the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and from ethics groups. But they go well beyond what Republicans were willing to do while they controlled Congress and beyond even what some Democrats were anticipating in recent weeks.

No they don't! She took one of two options! I wish I had the capacity to be surprised by such dishonesty.

Meanwhile, on even more simple terms, we are beginning to see Democrats engaging in real oversight even before they're handed the gavel.

Kevin Martin, the Chairman of the FCC and a rabid right-wing partisan, was all set to force through a merger between AT&T and Bellsouth, creating the largest telecommunications company in the country. This has serious implications for net neutrality, because one of the conditions of the deal that AT&T has rejected is protections for net neutrality. With such a massive footprint, AT&T's market power would be excessive and their investment patterns would be determinative for the future of the internet [...]

On Friday, Martin informed congressional leaders and incoming House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D., Mich.) that he's asked the FCC's general counsel to decide whether Republican FCC member Robert McDowell should be cleared to vote on AT&T Inc.'s pending purchase of BellSouth Corp. McDowell has questioned whether he should vote since he most recently lobbied on behalf of a trade group that represents smaller phone companies, which oppose the deal. The merger review has bogged down in partisan politics at the FCC, which is split 2-2 without McDowell's vote.
The general counsel was expected to announce his decision as soon as today. On Tuesday evening, however, he received a dreaded "Dingell-gram" from the incoming chairman's office. House Democrats are seeking answers to 15 detailed questions about the chairman's interest in clearing McDowell "by Monday, December 11."

Martin was going to force McDowell to unrecuse himself so that the merger could go through without AT&T having to make any concessions. He still may do that so he can call in favors later when he pursues political office in North Carolina, as he is rumored to want to do. But he's going to get pulled before Dingell in the House if he breaks the administrative process so egregiously and inappropriately. Dingell-grams are scary pieces of paper, because Dingell is a very smart bulldog legislator who knows how to investigate and conduct hearings. And the FCC hasn't had any oversight in a LONG time.

Not only that, but oversight will be conducted in many cases to raise awareness of issues and insert them into the public conversation.

Incoming Democratic committee chairmen say they will hold a series of hearings and investigations early next year to build the case for their call for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and for possible action against defense contractors found to have wasted billions in federal funds.

The emerging plans to grill administration officials on the conduct of the war are part of a pledge for more aggressive congressional oversight on issues such as prewar intelligence, prisoner treatment at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, and the government's use of warrantless wiretaps.

This is a very ominous article for the White House, detailing Sen. Carl Levin and Rep. Jack Murtha's newfound spotlight and how they plan to use it. I agree that Bush isn't about to leave Iraq, because leaving=losing in his mind. But holding high-profile hearings will be a powerful way to galvanize public opinion, which is already against the war, and to put pressure on lawmakers who have fewer and fewer ties to a lame-duck President.

What you're essentially seeing is the mechanism of government moving back to its normal manner of business. It's the political equivalent of regression to the mean. This is how Congress is supposed to work. It's not supposed to serve at the pleasure of the executive branch. It's supposed to be an equal administrant of governmental functions, and yes, even adversarial at times. For a few years, everyone went crazy and the Congress abdicated its responsibility to its constituents. We're finally starting to see that change.