Resume oversight.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Since Sept. 11, 2001, Congress has allowed the White House to do whatever it pleases in matters ranging from counterintelligence to the war in Iraq. So it's heartening to hear resurgent Democrats vowing vigorous oversight of the executive branch in the next Congress.

Last Wednesday, Sen. Patrick Leahy, the incoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said President Bush should expect intensive oversight on the war on terrorism, as well as his administration's policies on torture and other human rights issues.

"We have a duty, a real duty, to repair the real damage done to our system of government over the past few years," Leahy declared.

Quick, somebody cue the "Hallelujah" chorus and dust off the Constitution. A Congress that no longer allows itself to be deemed an irrelevant nuisance by the Bush White House is a welcome prospect - and an essential one at this pivotal moment in the nation's history.

Democrats must resist the temptation to be politically cautious and to restrain themselves from flexing their long-dormant oversight muscles. From Day 1 of the 110th Congress, they must not hesitate to conduct thorough, probing reviews of administration programs, practices and policies, both past and present.

But some Democrats are already fretting that the American public will view aggressive oversight as overreaching partisanship, and punish them for that in 2008. Lawmakers should remember that voters made clear on Nov. 7 that they want Congress to rein in an administration that for far too long has been accountable only to itself.

Americans also want answers to tough questions that can only be answered through unflinching oversight: How and when does the Bush administration plan to extricate U.S. troops from the the morass in Iraq before thousands more are killed and wounded?

Other questions about the war also need to be answered, both for reasons of accountability and to make certain this country is not once again misled into another disastrous conflict elsewhere: Why did the administration really decide to invade Iraq - and was intelligence intentionally manipulated to justify the war? How are American taxpayer dollars being spent and accounted for in Iraq, and are allegations of war profiteering justified?

Leahy plans to call on U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to explain and justify the administration's wiretapping of U.S. citizens' communications without court warrants and says his committee will examine the domestic spying program's impact on both the war on terror and American civil liberties. He also plans to probe the administration's still-troublesome policies on the detention and interrogation of terrorist suspects

The Bush administration and the new Republican minority in Congress will predictably react by accusing Democrats of engaging in political payback and of, a Republican favorite, second-guessing the commander in chief in a time of war.

Democrats mustn't be deterred from the tough, quintessentially American task of oversight, which ultimately is nothing more than fundamental governance. The Constitution mandates a separation of powers, as well as checks on those same powers - and that mandate requires rigorous, thorough and untiring oversight.