"Constitutional obligations"

Also from today's New York Times:

Some Democratic members of Congress are reluctant to pursue investigations into war profiteering, detainee interrogation or other controversial issues, fearing that such scrutiny of the administration will make Democrats appear petty and partisan and cost them electoral support in 2008.

A vigorous examination of the administration's conduct, however, is not only the appropriate action as a matter of constitutional prerogative, it is the politically necessary response to voters' overwhelming rejection of the current Congress's failure to assert itself in this area...

For the past six years, Congress's oversight function has atrophied in a unitary Republican landscape. To be sure, investigative power should be exercised carefully, thoughtfully and with due regard for the rights of a coordinate branch. But Congress should not shrink from its duty to investigate a reluctant or recalcitrant executive, especially one that, while cloaking itself in secrecy, has boldly asserted unprecedented powers in the initiation and conduct of war - with disastrous consequences that the electorate has now repudiated.

By performing their constitutional obligations, the new Democratic majorities in the House and Senate will surely do right by the Constitution and the country. But they will also no doubt do very well for themselves.

Damn straight!