Major Garrett: In New Congress, "Cloak" v. "Dagger"

Major Garrett of National Journal is one of the panelists Monday in our show about the 112th Congress and the GOP agenda. (Listen here.)

His new article, "Guerrilla War Over Government," is well worth reading. Here's his metaphor to explain the coming year:

What politics will look like in the next two years, more than anything else, is “Spy vs. Spy,” the famous MAD magazine comic strip by Antonio Prohias that depicted two identically drawn antagonists—one white, the other black—laying constant siege to one another. “Cloak” and “Dagger,” the combatants, deployed bombs, daggers, torpedoes, handguns, machine guns, mallets, and all variety of lethal booby traps. Cloak was a scientist and inventor; Dagger an infiltrator and master of disguise. Neither won, and neither gave up. Scores of wounds were inflicted and suffered.

According to Prohias, “Spy vs. Spy” was a Cold War metaphor, but it also prefigures the 112th Congress that begins in January—recurring battles over narrow strips of policy turf where Republicans move to block Obama, Obama tries to leapfrog them, and Republicans regroup to set new traps where he lands.