The Conservative Revolution 335counts of felony in March 2007. Democrats charged Republicans with
a “culture of corruption” that permeated Congress because of their
twelve-year control.
In the midterm election on November 7 , 2006 , the Democrats scored
a victory that no one anticipated. It had been expected that the House
would go Democratic, but not the Senate. To everyone’s surprise the
Democrats did indeed capture the upper house, by a single vote. Un-
questionably, the war in Iraq was the crucial issue that decided the
outcome of this election. The American people wanted a quick resolu-
tion to the problem and the return of U.S. troops. The Iraq Study
Group—a bipartisan panel cochaired by a Republican, James A. Baker,
former secretary of state under George H. W. Bush; and a Democrat,
Lee H. Hamilton, former member of the House of Representatives
from Indiana, that the Bush administration initially opposed but then
changed its mind and gave grudging support—recommended a com-
plete change of direction by the government. It advised that the admin-
istration initiate a diplomatic offensive and cease making “an open- ended
commitment to keep large numbers of American troops deployed in
Iraq.” But the President chose to pursue a different course and decided
to increase the number of American soldiers in the combat zone. He
called it a “surge” that would bring ultimate victory. No longer aiming
to make Iraq a democracy, Bush now settled for an end of violence and
the establishment of a government that could provide stability.
For the past six years there had been relatively no oversight by Con-
gress on the intrusion of the executive into areas beyond what the Con-
stitution allowed. Wiretapping of citizens without judicial authorization,
signing legislation and directing exceptions to the law, and advancing
presidential authority at the expense of Congress now came to a screech-
ing halt when the Democrats assumed majority status of the legislature
in January 2007. One of the fi rst remarkable things they did was elect
Nancy Pelosi of California as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
She was the first woman to hold that office, having served previously as
minority leader. She promised a long list of legislative action by the
House: increase the minimum wage, support the recommendations of
the Iraq Study Group, allow Medicare to negotiate for better drug
prices, call a halt to sending more troops to Iraq, reduce interest rates
on college loans, and other reforms in the fi rst 100 hours (not days) of