The Oversight Congress: How Democrats gain  

When the story of the Bush administration’s firings of U.S. attorneys erupted on to front pages in early January, the widespread expectation among Republicans on Capitol Hill and the White House was that they were in for a political storm — one that might even last a week or two.

Four months later, the scandal is still thundering, in ways that highlight almost daily how dramatically power shifted after last fall’s election. While Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is the immediate target, Democrats close to the investigation make clear that they plan to keep going until they fully pin down White House senior adviser Karl Rove’s role