November 8, 2006
Will the midterm Congressional results help the Bush Whitehouse find a consensual way out of the mess he has created? Or will Bush be a defiant president who spends his final two years in office in conflict with the Democratic legislature that Americans have chosen to represent them ? I fear that it is going to be the latter. The Republicans are just not that interested in the fact that large numbers of Americans passionately disagreed with their policies.

Martin Rowson
Does the Democrats post election talk of new directions imply that they have the answers on Iraq? Simon Tisdall, writing in the Guardian, suggests not:
...the Democrats have no coherent view of the matter.Hillary Clinton, the 2008 presidential hopeful, opposes an Iraq withdrawal timetable. John Kerry, beaten by Mr Bush in 2004, wants a firm deadline. John Murtha, who will control the committee that appropriates cash for the Iraq war, is demanding an immediate withdrawal. Joe Biden, the senior Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, advocates a tripartite division of Iraq into semi-autonomous federal zones. All that unifies them is criticism of Mr Bush's performance.
Does the change in the balance of power in Washington mean Bush hobbled or Bush unbound?
|
The executive still gets to make foreign policy, but has to get the legislative sufficiently on side that they fund it through money bills. The Democrats can mainly influence Iraq and foreign policy through legislation really. It is still the President's war and Bush probably won't be able to get away from that. Given that the next round of Presidential elections are coming up and the Democrats had so much success with Bush's failures in governance, they probably don't want to amplify their new found influence on Iraq policy anyway.
Because the Democrats have the lower house they can certainly make policies more efficient by scrutinizing in committees more closely the actions of the executive and their spending of monies.
The Bush Administration has been pretty strong on the Executive getting to do everything so I doubt they will let go foreign policy as one of their responsibilities.