After six months in charge of Congress, the Democrats have passed only one important law but have applied welcome scrutiny to the executive branch. Dick Cheney, the vice-president, claims that his office is not “an entity within the executive branch”, and therefore not subject to the rules concerning the proper care of secret documents. Six years ago, he rebuffed a probe into his energy task-force on the ground that it “would unconstitutionally interfere with the functioning of the executive branch”. Zen masters can doubtless see how a man can be both part of the executive and not part of it. Everyone else is grateful to Henry Waxman, the Democratic chairman of the House oversight committee, for exposing the absurd rationale for Mr. Cheney’s compulsive secrecy reports the Economist.

In November last year the Democrats trounced the Republicans to capture both chambers of Congress. On January 4th Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, celebrated her elevation to the speakership with the same prayer Margaret Thatcher used when she first became prime minister of the United Kingdom: “Where there is darkness, may we bring light. Where there is hatred, may we bring love. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.” Mrs. Pelosi and her fellow Democrats have made some progress on the first of these, but not much on the other two.

In the six months that the Democrats have been in charge, they have energetically shone torches into White House nooks the previous, Republican-controlled Congress was content to leave dark. Besides chivvying Mr. Cheney, the new Congress has investigated slipshod planning for the occupation of Iraq and the woeful treatment of injured veterans. It has subpoenaed the White House for documents about warrantless wiretapping, and grilled the attorney-general, Alberto Gonzales, about alleged politically-motivated sackings. Mr Gonzales still has his job, though. So does Mr. Cheney.

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