2007: Democrats in control, but thwarted
By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer Sun Dec 30, 8:16 AM ET

WASHINGTON - It's a painful irony for Democrats: In the space of a
year, the Iraq war that was the source of party's resurgence in
Congress became the measure of its impotence.

By the end of the 2007, a Congress controlled by Democrats for the
first time since 1994 had an approval rating of only 25 percent, down
from 40 percent last spring. Then the debate over the war split the
party and cast shadows over other issues, spawning a series of
legislative failures and losing confrontations with President Bush.

What to do about Iraq has turned into a dissing match so far-reaching
and nasty that Congress's accomplishments are seen, even by some who
run it, through the lens of their failure to override Bush and start
bringing the troops home.

"There is no question that the war in Iraq has eclipsed much of what
we have done," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters. "If you
asked me in a phone call, as ardent a Democrat as I am, I would
disapprove of Congress as well."

Perhaps the most bitter pill came toward the end of the year.
Democrats were forced to acknowledge that the decrease in violence in
Iraq might mean that Bush's much-criticized surge buildup of troops
was working.

Simultaneously, they found themselves on the defensive against
Republican charges that they squandered time on the war that could
have been spent getting agency budgets passed on time. As usual, what
has become an annual fix to the tax code to save 20 million families
an average $2,000 in extra taxes was put off until the final days
before Christmas.