The Future Chairman of the Judiciary Committee

The title of this Detroit News piece caught my eye: GOP's '08 hopes rest with John Conyers. How could Conyers play a role in '08? If the Dems take control of the House, Conyers becomes the Judiciary Committee chairman, and this guy is so full of conspiracy theories and other wacko ideas, he's sure to find himself in the media glare every day, and that's bad news for Dems:

If predictions bear out and Democrats move back into the Capitol's cushy majority offices in January, John Conyers will spend much of his time in the national spotlight advocating for his party's agenda.

If that doesn't send voters screaming back into the arms of the GOP in '08, nothing will.

It's no secret what we can expect from a Chairman Conyers.

Once he settles into the big chair, he'll fulfill his promise to bring articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush, based on a shoebox full of conspiracy theories downloaded from the Internet regarding the start of the Iraq War.

That will delight the fanatical Bush-haters, no small group, for sure. But it won't play in mainstream America or at least that portion of it still rational enough to understand that a bitter, drawn-out impeachment process is probably not the best enterprise to engage in while the country is at war.

(With partisan politics in full flower in Washington, who needs terrorists to create chaos and tear down our institutions?)

If you think impeachment hearings are Conyers only plan, don't forget reparations for slavery. And the beauty of the incoming Dem chairmanships is that a whole host of equally wacky people will find themselves in leadership positions:

Even if the saner heads in the Democratic Party can wave off Conyers from pressing his vendetta against Bush, he won't be deterred from his lifelong passion: reparations for slavery.

If you think the Iraq War is divisive, wait until a bill requiring all Americans to write checks to some Americans to pay for the sins of past Americans hits the floor of Congress.

Conyers may be the most, uh, eccentric of the Democratic chairmen-in-waiting, but not by much.

Also in line to lead committees are Charlie Rangel at Ways and Means, who'd extend welfare eligibility to all Americans except maybe Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. New Ager Dennis Kucinich, who wants a Department of Peace and would head the national security, emerging threats and international relations subcommittee -- they'll love him in Paris. And Big Labor's fox in the henhouse would be George Miller at Education and Labor.

It might be fun watching Nancy Pelosi try to spin the antics of this group as representative of rank-and-file America.

If nothing else, voters will have two years to see what extremism in politics really looks like.

That should work as an inoculation -- exposing voters to a little bit of the disease to prevent a larger, fatal attack.

And it may give Republicans, who will have only themselves to blame if the transition occurs, time to reflect on how they could have screwed up their 12-year reign so spectacularly that voters would rather take a chance on Conyers and crew.

With the polls suddenly turning toward the GOP, this whole thing could be moot (let's hope it is). However, this should be a warning to those Republicans who are threatening to sit out the election that the alternative is not too pretty.