A Democrat majority House

For those who don't get the IBD; they have something to ponder. The Democrats are only 15 seats away. Very close, and with the pent-up historical swings they missed in '02 and '04 - pretty good chance they might win. What would it look like?

Should the House change hands, John Conyers would become chairman of the Judiciary Committee. ... Conyers would personify what would be the most liberal House of Representatives ever. A founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, he used the ’60s riots in his district of Detroit as a pretext to call for government-guaranteed income, and he opposed President Johnson on Vietnam as soon as he entered Congress in 1965.

The speaker of this liberal House would be San Francisco’s Nancy Pelosi. Among her many left-of-center stands is her embrace of John Murtha’s call to bring the troops home from Iraq in six months. Murtha himself would likely resume his chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee. That means the man holding the Pentagon’s purse would believe “the vast majority of the Iraqi people now view (U.S. troops) as occupiers, not as liberators.”

The House Budget Committee would almost certainly be headed by John Spratt of South Carolina. He is Pelosi’s point man on the budget and an ardent opponent of Bush’s Social Security reform. Say goodbye to all hopes of taming entitlement spending. And say hello to possible tax hikes. Spratt thinks Bush’s father “did the right thing” in 1990 when he broke his “no new taxes” pledge.

The House Government Reform Committee would be chaired by Henry Waxman, from Los Angeles’ liberal west side. Last week, he accused Bush of “placing himself above the Constitution” for signing a budget resolution. Maybe Waxman could add “illegal budgeting” to Conyers’ articles of impeachment.

David Obey of Wisconsin, whom the Almanac of American Politics describes as “a true believer in traditional liberalism, Keynesian economics and economic redistribution,” is likely to return as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. At a post-9-11 Oval Office meeting, he is said to have told Bush to leave Congress’ big spenders alone because they’re such experts on legislation.

In George Miller, another San Francisco-area congressman, we’d have a shill of the public school teachers unions chairing the House Education and the Workforce Committee. Expect him to support union efforts to resist reform by suing the government.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee would be chaired by the infamously arrogant John Dingell. The 25-term representative of southeast Michigan is a strong proponent of punitive tax and regulatory measures against the oil industry.

And as chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, how does Charles Rangel sound? In 2003, Harlem’s congressman claimed the Bush tax cuts “are not leading to economic growth (or) more jobs.” Since then, the economy has grown at a 3.5% clip with nearly 5 million new jobs and an unemployment rate of 4.8%.

In short, a Democrat-controlled House in 2007 won’t look anything like those run by Tip O’Neill and Tom Foley in the past. It would a radicalized, emboldened bunch out for blood — that of George W. Bush. Republicans downplay the threat at their peril — not to mention the peril of our economy and national security.

Have a nice evening!