Republicans, Trump may rue this 2015 rule change if Democrats flip the House

Democrats have a roughly 85 percent chance of taking control of the House, FiveThirtyEight predicted early Monday, but there's no guarantee Republicans won't hold on with that remaining 15 percent. The "blue wave" could still crash into the "political seawall" of partisan gerrymandering "erected by Republicans who controlled the redistricting process in more states than Democrats after the 2010 census," The Associated Press reminded everyone Sunday. But assuming they do win the House, Democrats will have a powerful tool Republicans created for them in 2015, Politico reports:

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), for example, told Politico, "The Republicans have set the standard and, by God, we're going to emulate that standard." Some Democrats told Politico they would be hesitant to use the unilateral subpoena process against the Republicans who weaponized it, Politico notes, but "oversight would be one of the few concrete goals that Democrats could accomplish with control of only one chamber of Congress and Trump still in the White House," and "they have a long list of potential targets, including likely demands for Trump's tax returns and probes into Cabinet members such as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke" — assuming they're still in Trump's Cabinet.

You can read more about the unilateral subpoena, and how often certain Republicans used it on Obama, at Politico.

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