Zell Lieberman.  Despite Sen. Lieberman's antics during his campaign to join the Republican party, many Democrats in the Senate are supporting Sen. Lieberman's bid to retain his position as chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.  Keeping Sen. Lieberman as Chair of that committee will indicate a woeful lack of determination to correct the excesses of the Bush administration in curtailing civil liberties.  A progressive agenda demands a Chair willing to conduct tough investigations and hearings on the Bush administration's conduct.  Lieberman clearly is not the right person for that job.  However, Lieberman is just the right person for business as usual in Washington.

The Bush Claims of Executive Privilege.  The Congress should pursue numerous investigations that have been stymied by President Bush's assertions of executive privilege.  Whether Congress actually will pursue those investigations remains unclear.  Pelosi and Reid have shown a lack of leadership to date.  Those investigations and hearings should take place early  (before March), otherwise they will be history rather than news.  Obama may take some unilateral actions (waiver of privilege, compelling testimony, uncovering and publishing documents) as President to shine some light on Bush's actions.  Unfortunately, Presidents in office seem to have little interest in exposing the wrongful or imcompetent conduct of the outgoing administration.  Let's see whether either the President-Elect or the Democratic leadership will take appropriate action.

The Bailout.  The bailout now in progress seems to be running amok.  Congress has no idea where the money has gone.  Moreover, we still do not have a clear statement of what the bailout aims to correct.  Those who know (Paulson, et al) won't say.  Until we at least learn where the taxpayers' money has gone, nobody can make a credible claim of having insisted upon accountability.  That includes Pelosi, Reid and the President-Elect.  

Further, it appears that the bailout will not succeed and the economy will not recover until the mortgage foreclosure crisis has been abated. The best hope for dealing with foreclosures is to let the Bankruptcy courts reform the mortgages.  The Bush administration has been stonewalling on giving the Bankruptcy Courts jurisdiction to reform mortgage loans.  

Obama will either take charge on this critical economic issue or lose his credibility.

Healthcare Reform.  No issue is more important to our economic competitiveness than healthcare.  As long as our business entities remain burdened with excessive healthcare costs, they never will be able to compete globally.  If healthcare reform is not enacted, state and local governments will continue to with offer greater and greater concessions to attract new businesses.  Our irrational commitment to employer-based healthcare lies at the root of our inability to create new jobs.  

Obama seems to have at least a broad outline for a national healthcare plan.  If he fails to enact healthcare reform immediately, I expect to see economic stagnation rather than recovery.