Dems Off to Quick Start in 2007

Democrats are wasting absolutely zero time getting down to business in 2007.

Thursday, in their first week back in power, House Democrats passed new ethics rules, which the Democrat-led Senate will take up this week. The Senate will start with a bill, put on the shelf last year by the then-Republican-led House, that Harry Reid said would have provided "the most significant reform since Watergate in lobbying and ethics." Democrats will also try to strengthen the bill with amendments to extend the ban on gifts to entities that hire lobbyists, increase criminal penalties for violations of lobbying disclosure laws and make it easier to eliminate provisions slipped into House-Senate conference reports at the last minute.

On Friday, House Democrats voted to block future tax cuts or benefit increases from being financed with dollars that swell the national deficit, as well as to require legislation that contains pet projects and narrowly targeted tax breaks to include the names of the lawmakers who requested them.

At the same time, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont has introduced a bill targeting fraud by government contractors supporting the occupation of Iraq and the response to Hurricane Katrina, and has joined with Democratic Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas to strengthen public corruption investigations.

Kudos to the Democratic Party for not sitting around and waiting for Bush to set the agenda. The country sent a clear message in November that it wants change, and wants the kind of progressive, proactive government for the people that is anathema to the GOP, and that only the Democratic Party can provide.

And oh by the way, Bush now says he can open your mail. So we've got that going for us.