Put a face on your fears: the apprehensive citizen's guide to the new Republican committee chairmen of the U.S. Senate--and what they have in store for us. (Gazette).

THEY HAD TO WAGE A CAMPAIGN IN EQUAL PARTS deceitful and dynamic to get there, but when Congress convenes in January, Republicans will control the Senate. The Democrats' capacity to impede the Bush agenda has been whittled down to the occasional filibuster. Their ability to inquire about the administration's most glaring lunacies is gone. Not that the Democrats were any great shakes when they ran the Senate, but now they must struggle to be anything more than indignant footnotes to a reactionary text.

The new Senate will differ from the old chiefly in that it will speed, not ...