The Democrats Are Finally Fighting Back

It seems Jon Corzine couldn't have picked a more ironic moment to leave the U.S. Senate to become governor of New Jersey. Corzine, a Democrat, felt he had to leave the Senate because he felt he couldn't accomplish anything as the member of a gutless minority party. After all, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada questioned George W. Bush's intelligence, only to apologize for it. His deputy, Illinois's Richard Durbin, read an account of the torturing of prisoners at Abu Gharib in Iraq, and said (with some justification) that it could have been mistaken for a report on a Soviet-era gulag; at first refusing to apologize for his remarks, he was finally made to do just that. Now, as Mr. Corzine goes to Trenton, the Democrats have fought back on the Iraq War by forcing a further investigation into prewar intelligence by forcing the Senate into closed session. Then, when George W. Bush and Dick Cheney viciously attacked Senate Democrats for misrepresenting the truth about the vote on the war resolution (which is a lot like William Shatner accusing someone of overacting), the Democrats did the unthinkable - they rebutted the charges and stood their ground! Whooda thunk it? Now, on the House side, even Representative John Murtha - a moderate Democrat who supports the military unreservedly - has called for U.S. troops to be withdrawn from Iraq in six months. This isn't some left-wing namby-pamby activist camera hog from Boston; this is a staunchly pro-military, blue-collar lunch-pail congressman from Pennsylvania who avoids the limelight as much as possible. The Republicans are trying to go on the offensive, and they suddenly find themselves dealing with something they never expected - a counteroffensive from the opposition.

But can it last? After all, the Democrats are still outnumbered in Congress and are up against a highly disciplined majority party. In any event, Jon Corzine must be getting ready to leave the Senate happy that his future former colleagues have finally realized that they have some power and are using it.