All work and no play for Dems

Investigating handling of war, corruption should be top priorities

DEMOCRATS SHOULD INTERPRET the GOP loss as a nod from America to make the executive accountable.

There is no doubt the GOP lost because of its conduct of the Iraq War, rampant corruption within its ranks and chronic inefficiency that was beginning to threaten the noble integrity of Congress.

Democrats should go all out. They should start by appointing anti-war Congressman and war hero John Murtha as House majority leader.

Such a move would effectively symbolize the long overdue demise of the “stay-the-course” chorus peddled by the GOP ever since things turned sour in Iraq.

Investigations into the conduct of the war should promptly start. The Dems should seek real answers to the shabbily investigated abuse in the Abu Ghraib prison.

It is eerily ironic that only junior officers were convicted for the incident that caused an outcry all over the world.

Corruption in awarding of contracts and having corporations such as Halliburton doing reconstruction work in Iraq should also be investigated.

Besides the investigations, the Democratic-led Congress should also come up with a plan to resolve the deteriorating situation in Iraq.

Involving the generals on the ground and cooperating with the bipartisan Iraq Study Group formed by the Bush administration would make it easier to come up with a plan likely to be acceptable across the board.

The 10-member Iraq Study Group led by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton (D) is charged with the Herculean task of finding a solution to the mess in Iraq.

Finding answers for FEMA’s failure in the Gulf States during Hurricane Katrina and its continued fiasco in handling the aftermath of the hurricane is another area the Republican-led Congress failed at.

Democrats should now take charge and find out what caused the colossal failure and put in place effective policies to prevent a repeat of this tragedy.

According to polls, Republicans lost Hispanic support in the just concluded election because of their poor handling of the hot-button immigration issue.

The responsibility of coming up with a responsible immigration reform policy now lies with Democrats.

The Dems should push for an immigration reform policy that would effectively protect the border, provide law-abiding immigrants with an opportunity to become legal residents and eventually U.S. citizens and avoid every maneuver seeking to criminalize undocumented immigrants already in the country.

Taking control of the House also presents a perfect opportunity for Democrats to fulfill their pledge of hiking the federal minimum wage, which has stayed at $5.15 an hour for 10 years.

This will be an easy one for the Democratic Party; voters across the nation seem united in demanding a raise.

It’s very unlikely that any politician would vote against such a bill when it comes to the floor.

A lot of action is expected from the Senate Intelligence Committee, charged with ensuring national security.

The committee should put more oversight on executive powers and crack down on secret programs such as the National Security Agency’s wiretapping program and secret detentions.

The committee should also seek to restore the writ of habeas corpus, which gives prisoners the right to challenge their detention in an open court.

Republicans lost because of their partisanship and corruption.

Democrats should be inclusive and conduct their business openly and with integrity.

They have to be firm and decisive in policy matters and avoid coming across as petty witch hunters.

As for the Republicans, they just have to chill in the periphery for now and wait for Democrats to screw up.

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