After last year mid-term election victory in November, the Democrats have officially taken control both houses again after being absent from the power for 12 years. Nancy Pelosi, the congressional woman from my beloved city- San Francisco, has become the first woman House Speaker and Harry Reid has become the Majority Leader in the senate.

The clock starts today with their first 100 hours in power to initiate any new policy and deliver the promises they have made to the Americans people. The most important issue must be the situation in Iraq, the raising of the minimum wages, the reality of the globalization that is taking tolls on the average American workers, the tax cut that favors the rich, the looming of the budget deficit and the environment.

The hottest topic is the situation in Iraq. Both Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have made it clear that while they are not going to cut the spending on the troop in the battlefield, they will not give Bush a blank check like the Republican did when they were in power anymore. The Democrats are walking on the thin line between being seen as weak in the national security and not being supportive to the ground troop and breaking the promises to the majority of the Americans who elected them in the last November.

The raising of the minimum wage is also a hot button that can create a firestorm from both sides that accept money from the big corporate. The minimum wages has been stalled for a decade. The reward gap between the CEO and top executive and the average workers are drastically increased. The problem has squeezed the Americans to the bone and they are screaming louder and louder.

The globalization is taking tolls on the American people. They are losing job to the foreign countries in particular China and the Democrats are listening. If the Democrats cannot solve the dilemma of being a real example of the free market and globalization (that favors the business) and showing that they care for the average American workers who are losing their job, the country might go back to the protectionism in trade and it might spill to the immigration issue, in particular when jobs are scarce but there are too many foreigners in the country.

The Democrats control the ultimate weapon- the budget. So they can have a final say if they will allow the tax cut and the deficit to continue. But it’s more than likely that Bush will have a very hard time selling his tax cut agenda to the skeptical Democrats. To be fiscal balance is to cut the expense and increase the revenue. Either way, Bush has to sacrifice either his tax cut plan or his extravagant spending.

Bush has been consistently trying to weaken the environment from loosing the Clean Air Act laws, refusing to sign the Kyoto Pact to the attempt of drilling the Alaska Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The Democrats promise to support the energy independence and combats climate changes. So Bush’s denial of the global warming might not be as firm as he was when the Republican were in the power.

So welcome to the new era (at least for now), Bush has become officially a lame duck. No matter how much he has tried to convince the public that he was successful in working with both sides when he was a governor of Texas, his agendas will be hard to sell to those skeptical Democrats even to his own party after a huge setback in the mid-term election.

I am not sure if how much Democrats will be able to deliver those promises. But I hope they have learned the painful lessons when they did not. The power corrupts even the good man. At least let’s hope now that everything will at least be different from what the Republican did when they were in power of all branches of the government.

It’s been my six miserable years since Bush beat Al Gore in 2000. Finally I will be able to sleep better.

Tae Athikomvittaya