I, personally, hope the Democrats take the House back. I will cheer if they do. (I won't be disappointed if they also sieze the Senate, but I'd rather they didn't.) The Republicans have shown themselves to be unworthy and incompetent, and have given in to corruption. Let the Democrats take over until they're corrupted (it probably won't take as long).
With Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, we've lost any checks and balances. Which is why George Bush hasn't used a veto to stop pork-barreling or anything else. The Republicans in Congress and the Republicans in the White House just give each other whatever they want. If the Democrats are in charge, Bush will finally begin using his veto power, and Congress will finally start pushing back with more than token resistance.
Plus--I gleefully welcome some Congressional investigations. The word is that Nancy Pelosi has warned her colleagues that she doesn't want the House to become a courthouse. But some investigations will occur, and they will become political circuses with lots of self-righteous Democratic grandstanding (not unlike the eight tedious years--eight years!--of Clinton-era Republican hand-wringing over Whitewater). But I say to the Dems, "Go to it!"
I want to see Congressional investigations on some issues where I feel the Bush Administration has shown itself to be incompetent, unethical, and occasionally evil. Issues like how my beloved country embraced state-sponsored torture, the Abramoff scandal, declaring ourselves exempt from the Geneva Conventions, sinful tax cuts for the rich. And I want bright spotlights on the whole Iraq War Debacle, for which history will rightfully shame Bush.
I want heads to roll. Republican heads. And since that'll only happen if Democrats wield the sword, I'm all for it. God often used pagan nations to discipline Israel, so I'm okay with using Democrats to discipline Republicans (since Republicans utterly refuse to discipline their own, unless they trail off-message or are powerless, low-level pawns).
I have abandoned any notion that the Republicans are the "Christian party" or the "family values" party. Both parties are secular entities, and I place little hope in either. So let them trade power back and forth. Doesn't matter a pittance to me anymore.
Career-wise, I've been hanging around and writing about and cheering on churches and pastors for the past 25 years as my denomination's Communications Director.
Steve,
I can only laugh! How are you surviving in "red country"?
And I can only cry when I see that you are willing to throw away the chance of eliminating the Supreme Court's liberal majority. Are the recent court additions just as bad as the liberals? How many more dead babies must we endure while you look for the perfect man to be the perfect politician. Should we really keep wringing our hands until Jesus comes? Steve, I prefer to work the polls election day for just another sinner who happens to be the one that I think is best for the office.
Although I agree many Republicans have done a miserable job and haven't lived up to their 1994 promise, "checks and balances" is not a concept for the Congress, it is for the executive, legislative and judicial branches. I really don't want Nancy Pelosi a heart beat from the presidency. Bush had a number of maverick Republicans who thwarted him at most turns. You usually don't see those kinds of "checks" with the Democrats.