Looking Forward, Not Back

Has anyone else noticed how the conservative line changes, depending on who is in charge?

When the Democrats took control of Congress in 2006, the conservative establishment repeated "it's time to look forward, not back" so often that it became almost unthinkable that anyone do any investigations into the Bush administration, even though it's pretty clear that there are some things out there which absolutely should be looked into. It's the same old tired list opponents of the Bush administration have touted for ever. Warrantless wiretapping. Waterboarding. Overuse of mercenaries instead of military forces. And on and on.

But now, the situation is reversed, it is a Democratic President and they have retaken at least part of the Congress, and now they're signalling their intention to investigate everything, to crawl up the Administration's metaphorical butt with a microscope and examine anything, with several having pre-decided the outcome of those investigations, calling the Administration "the most corrupt in our history".

Funny how when it's THERE guy, the Democrats would be "focusing on the past" and "not doing the work the American people want them to do" if they investigated some very real questionable behaviors about the last guy, but suddenly they're "doing their patriotic duty" when it's trying to take down a guy on the left.

And the thing is, I think this is going to backfire on them. The American people aren't stupid. We're not always the brightest bulbs in the pack, collectively, but we're not entirely stupid. In two years, if the economy has continued its slow climb out of the ditch and things are looking better, and Obama can say "Look, things are better, we've gotten us out of trouble, and while we were doing it, the Republicans were doing nothing but trying to take apart my agenda and investigate me", I think it will work to their significant detriment.

Of course, it's so difficult to prognosticate these things, because any sort of major unforeseeable (another major terrorist attack, another Katrina, a major assassination or terminal illness in a major leader, etc) could tip the balance, but all things being equal, I think a repeat of the "throw mud against the wall until something sticks" saturation bombing of the early and middle Clinton years will have the same effect now, aiding Obama to win a second term, and possibly even leading to congressional losses for the Republicans in 2012.