How hard can Dems 'donkey punch' the White House?

Some freely available Political Calculus

By ADAM NAGOURNEY
The New York Times

Filed 3.23.07

AFTER four years of one-party rule in Washington, Americans, not to mention the White House, got a fresh taste last week of life under a divided government. A Democratic Congress threatened subpoenas of White House officials and moved toward setting a deadline for withdrawing troops from Iraq. A defiant Republican president, for his part, had some withering denunciations for his Congressional critics.

Democrats say this escalating battle acts on the message voters sent by putting them in charge. That is, to end an unpopular war and bring oversight to a White House that has gone largely unmonitored.

Still, there are questions and risks for the new majority party. The biggest question is how far can Democrats go in opposing this president? The biggest risk is going so far that they feel the sting of a backlash — of being transformed from the fresh new face of change to the latest cast of Washington players enmeshed in partisan wrangling.

(Click & Read on courtesy of the New York Times)