Josh Marshall on the importance of the congressional elections this fall:

…when you think about this coming election, and the stakes for the White House, you need to figure that that’s all come about without any independent, let alone antagonistic or hostile, investigations into the key issues that have led to this souring view of the president.

Would the president look better after a new look at the Iraq intel bamboozlement that wasn’t controlled by Sen. Roberts? How about an investigation into the executive branch side of the Abramoff scandal? What about a look into the Plame affair? What about the folks in Rumsfeld’s office who knew about Duke’s corruption but looked the other way?

I couldn’t agree more. In a usual scenario, at least one house of congress is in the hands of the opposition party. So when a White House oversteps its authority, they are rightly investigated, reports are issued and the public gets a solid idea of what is going on. In short, if Republicans lose big enough in November, it’s going to get worse for Bush, and we’re going to start getting more of the truth.