[Here's a slightly more focused version of the argument that the election will make the Democratic party relatively more progressive rather than relatively more conservative. The argument in a nutshell is that much more significant than the fact that the new marginal districts are purple is that the leadership of the committees will be more progressive. And it is those leaders who control the legislative party and set the agenda -- as well as everything (patronage, positions, publicity) that those Rahm-selected newbies need. So no matter what bluedogs may think personally, they won't be leaders. They'll be footstools enabling progressives to reach the top shelf.]
[Maybe yes, maybe no. But it's not an illogical argument.]
'Centrists' Move Over: This Was An Election for Progressives
By Joel Bleifuss and Nick Burt, In These Times Posted on November 10, 2006, Printed on November 10, 2006 http://www.alternet.org/story/44108/
Don't buy all the crap coming from GOP talking-point memos or the
blather from mainstream pundits. The midterm elections do not signal a
move to the center. Yes, a few conservative Democrats were elected,
but the big gainers were progressives. In particular, the
Congressional Progressive Caucus is on the rise.
No longer will Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) be able to grab
the gavel and run, as he did at a hearing last year when faced with
pointed questions from Congressional Democrats about the PATRIOT Act,
Guantanamo and the "war on terror." During a hearing, Sensenbrenner,
the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, used his standing to
abruptly declare the committee's public hearing on the PATRIOT Act
over. He cut off the microphones of the Democratic half of the panel
and smugly shuffled out of the room, thereby avoiding any more
frivolous questions about "civil rights."
Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich) -- the new chair of the Judiciary Committee
-- will welcome such questions.
Democrats as a whole will benefit from controlling the House of
Representatives, but yesterday's victory bodes especially well for
members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), a coalition of
63 left-leaning Democrats that includes Speaker of the House Nancy
Pelosi (D-Calif.). Indeed the CPC is poised to increase its ranks. In
an unprecedented move this fall, CPC members -- coming together under
the newly formed Progressive Majority Project -- pooled their money,
time and staff to lend support to progressives running in 12 House
races. Eight of those CPC-backed candidates won, which makes all this
talk about conservative Democrats in the ascendancy a bunch of bunk.
(In addition, two CPC members, Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Rep.
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), have moved on to the Senate.)
Though the CPC represents about a third of House Democrats, the caucus
members hold ranking minority positions on half of the House's 20
standing committees, including Conyers on the Judiciary Committee,
Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) on the Education and the Workforce
Committee, and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) on the Government Reform
Committee. As chairmen of those committees, CPC members will now be in
a position to both promote progressive legislation and investigate
administration wrongdoing. The assumption of committee chairmanships
is one way the CPC is working to transform the group from the House's
largest caucus into its most powerful.
<end excerpt>
Full at http://www.alternet.org/story/44108/