By the most often used measure of control, Democrats currently need to take fifteen seats in the House of Representative in order to gain a majority. Fifteen more seats would give Democrats control over House leadership positions, House committees and subcommittee chairs, and also subpoena power. However, as Democrats like Joe Lieberman and Bruce Reed are able to consistently remind us, that is not the only type of control over the House of Representatives. Not only would Bush remaining President make it difficult, if not impossible, for a Democratic House to pass any meaningful, progressive legislation into law, there are many Democrats who would make that task quite difficult.

There is another type of control Democrats should be shooting for in November and beyond: a voting majority for the majority Democratic position on important pieces of legislation. After all, our long term goal is not only for the Democratic Party to be in control, but for the ideas and issues for which the majority of the Democratic Party stands to be in control. Before we figure out how to make that happen, we first need to figure out what than would even mean. If I may be so bold, I have the answer in the extended entry.

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