Who's In Charge Here?

Glenn Greenwald, as usual, got me thinking with this post highlighting the consensus on the right (such as that may be) that "the terrorists" welcome the Democratic victory in the elections. He links to a number of pundits, but this particularly brainless post from Ann Althouse really struck me:

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei interprets the American election.

"With the scandalous defeat of America's policies in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and Afghanistan, America's threats are empty threats on an international scale."

What will the Democrats do to push back against that?

I left a comment there, which basically boiled down to: Why should the Democrats have to push back? (I used to read Althouse regularly, but she's so determinedly irrelevant that I stopped.)

This is sort of a capsule version of comments I've seen all over the place, both from the left and the right, which all boil down to: The Democrats are now in charge. COming from the right and the MSM, it's a nice way to avoid any responsibility for anything: now, according to this mantra, if the Democrats are so smart, why don't they fix it?

Well, no.

They've taken Congress. Not the White House. (Pity, that, although I can't think of a Democrat I'd like to see there except maybe Al Gore or Bill Clinton.) They're in a position to put the brake on some of the administration's excesses (can we hopefully kiss the Patriot Act and the Torture Bill good-bye?). I'm looking for two years of deadlock, which might be the best thing.