IMAGINE TRADING IN SENSENBRENNER FOR JOHN CONYERS! JUST HANG ON FOR ANOTHER HALF YEAR

No one wants to count their chickens before they hatch or, worse, put a keynahore on something so promising. But if things continue along the path they are going right now, the changes in Congress will be far more profound than numbers indicate. The Democrats need to pick up just over a dozen seats to be able to take over the House leadership. That would displace DeLay's boy Denny Hastert as Speaker (unless he is indicted and imprisoned first) in favor of Rahm's boy gal Nancy Pelosi. But that's just the barest beginning. What's really important is who would be replacing the right-wing kooks, crooks and misanthropes like Richard Pombo, Duncan Hunter, James Sensenbrenner and Jerry Lewis.

The bad news is that corporately-oriented "moderate" Dem, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, an untrustworthy old-line machine hack, would become Majority Leader (and thereby determine the House's agenda). And there are one or two really reactionary Democrats (actual DINOs) like Collin Peterson (MN) and Ike Skelton (MO) who are up for powerful chairmanships. But other than that... the majority of new chairmen would be strong and accomplished liberals, some of whom are really outstanding legislators.

The Republicrooks who would be kicked out of their positions include a real rogues' gallery of monstrosities and imbeciles, some just a few steps from indictment-- Bob Goodlatte (Agriculture), Duncan Hunter (Armed Services), Jim Nussle (Budget), Joe Barton (Energy & Commerce),  Michael Oxley (Finance), Tom Davis (Government Reform),  Henry Hyde (International Relations), James Sensenbrenner (Judiciary),  Richard Pombo (Natural Resources), David Dreier (Rules), Don Young (Transportation), Jerry Lewis (Appropriations), Bill Thomas (Ways and Means).

Among their liberal replacements would be John Dingell (Energy & Commerce), Charlie Rangel (Ways and Means), Richard Obey (Appropriations), George Miller (Natural Resources), John Conyers (Judiciary), Alcee Hastings (Intelligence), Jim Oberstar (Transportation), Barney Frank (Financial Services), Louise Slaughter (Rules).

Try to imagine the difference on the Resources Committee, for example, where extremist kook Dick Pombo is advocating every harebrained anti-environmental scheme that comes down the pike-- as long as it's wrapped in enough kickbacks-- and wants to sell off the National Parks so more multimillionaires can get bigger tax-breaks, when he is replaced by one of the most thoughtful and intellectually well-equipped conservers of the environment since Teddy Roosevelt! Or imagine the soon-to-be-indicted crook Jerry Lewis being forced out of the Appropriations Committee in favor of Richard Obey, a man of unblemished integrity and probity, respected by everyone on both sides of the aisle. Joe Barton did everything he could to keep senior citizens from getting subsidies for heating oil last winter; he's a rabid, blood sucking fascist moron and the only thing that stopped him in his tracks was, as Pat Robertson would say, The Hand of The Lord (Amen). If the Democrats win, Energy and Commerce would be taken over by John Dingell, someone who wants to solve problems-- and who has the brain power to do so-- not someone who is out to create problems. And you remember the bribe-taking Abramoff pal, Don Young at Transportation, right? The asshole who got that multimillion dollar Bridge to Nowhere, Alaska put into the Omnibus Transportation Bill. Even if he doesn't wind up in prison soon, he would be replaced by Jim Oberstar, someone who looks at government as part of a solution to peoples' problems-- not as a tool for feathering one's own nest.

It almost makes you wanna hold your nose and vote for reactionaries in the Democratic Party. AFTER the primaries.