Dan Rather

Whatever else may happen, 2007 promises to be a fascinating year for national politics. It begins with the Democrats taking control of Congress, and it will end with the gradual solidification of the field of Republican and Democratic presidential candidates. What takes place in between might well decide who will be elected in 2008 to succeed President Bush in the Oval Office.

Political junkies will have more than their fill of drama and sideshows, but with American troops in the field in Iraq and Afghanistan, this is also deadly serious business.

This year's first big collision between domestic politics and war policy is likely to come this week, with President Bush expected to lay out his new plan for Iraq. If the president, as many have predicted, includes an increase in troop levels as part of his strategy, the new Democratic majorities in the House and Senate will face an immediate political and policy test.

Power of the purse

They might not be able to change or overrule the president's preferred course (except by the unlikely exercise of Congress' power of the purse, an option that various Democratic leaders have ruled out pre-emptively), but they will be expected to take a position on what the White House lays out. In doing so, they will have to, first, assess the merits of the president's plan; second, keep one eye on public perceptions of Democrats' handling of national security matters; and, third, keep the other eye on the expectations of the voters who brought them to power.

As for the second and third concerns, these could well become growing and opposing tensions for a party that is trying to shed its notorious history of internecine conflict. We're already beginning to hear rank-and-file voters who pulled the lever for the Democrats this time insisting they did so to "bring our troops home", while the more strategically minded (politically and otherwise) are more likely to see a vacuum of good options into which Democrats should tread with the utmost care.

And regarding the first concern, deciding whether or not the president's prescriptions for Iraq - whatever they turn out to be - are a good idea, this process may jump-start what might ultimately be the enduring legacy of this Congress - oversight hearings.

In the past fall's campaign and since the election, "oversight" is a word that has never been far from the lips of congressional Democrats. With a razor-thin margin in the Senate and a Republican in the White House, they might not be able to get much legislation passed, but they can practise oversight of the executive branch's departments and policies in a way that has not been seen for some time. We can expect any number of congressional hearings in the months ahead, on the various aspects of the White House and Pentagon's handling of Iraq, as well as on a number of other subjects.

Presidential aspirants

Sitting in on those hearings, at least on the Senate side, will be a number of possible or probable presidential aspirants, including Senators Clinton, McCain, Obama and Biden. One does not have to be a cynic to imagine that this fact has the potential to colour the tone of these proceedings.

But politics is what happens in a democratic system such as ours, and this same system was set up to work with the legislative branch overseeing the work of the executive branch. In a serious time, one wish we might have for 2007 is for our nation's leaders to leaven their inevitable political maneuvering with a healthy dose of wisdom.

Dan Rather is an American television broadcaster.