I was glued to Jordie's TV late Tuesday watching as CNN tallied the votes and declare the Democrats as the House majority. My mouth dropped to the floor. Apparently, this is the first time in 12 years that the Democrats were in control of the house. I had expected the Dems to give a hard fight, but to ultimately loose and go back to the "Republican Rule" congress.For the past six years, the Democrats in congress have been twiddling their thumbs, unable to make any real change or progress in congress because the Republican controlled the House and Senate in Congress and owned the Executive branch. This one party rule created a system of self-serving, pocket-lining, 100% Bush backing deals. Over the past few years, with the war still going nowhere, congress being the laziest it has been in the last hundred years, and a president living in denial. At the polls Tuesday, the people decided that they want change.
Will there be any actual change or accountability in the new Congress environment? It will be hard to tell. Already the wheels are turning for good things (hopefully) ahead. The day after the results, another jaw-dropper: President Bush announced that the Secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, was stepping down from office. This comes a shocker after only a week ago, Bush reassuerd that Rumsfeld was staying put. Although bush denies it has anything to do with the Mid-term results, it is way too coincidental. In truth, the results have created a shake up, that even the President realizes. After learning that the majority of the American people were not happy with the progress in Iraq, Bush suddenly receded from his "Stay the course" mantra; that his Iraq policy was "not working well enough, fast enough,"- he remarked after announcing that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was stepping down.
In related news, with Rep. Nanci Polosi becoming (the first woman) speaker of the House, former Speaker, Dennis Hastart (at left) stated that he will not fill in the shoes of Minority Speaker (sadly though he will still be in congress). This man in question has done more business in Congress for himself and his hometown than the nation and is as corrupt as they come. Read all about it in Rolling Stone's article on the 10 Worst Congressmen. Very insightful.Read the full article here for a new understanding how little progress Congress has made in the last 6 years.
My concern with the new Democratic leadership is if they will actually bring about great change in Congress and end the corruption that has plagued Congress over the last 6 years as they have promised. All commitees will be led by the Dems, meaning that if they take the initiative, they can scrutinize and examine many facits of the war, on the Bush administration, on Halliburton, and so on. This can all go to shit if Democrats get lazy and sit on their asses much like the Republicans did before them. If the Dems can reach across the isle to make compromises and not alienate the Republican, then much progress can be made. And if Bush is all for working with a democratic majority and not vetoing everything to shit (which he has a longstanding history of never using his veto power) then we may be making steps in the right direction over the next 2 years.
Here's some great Daily Show/Colbert Report videos concerning the mid-term elections:
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