Wednesday - November 08, 2006

It Was A Dark And Stormy Night

HOUSE

Democrats Take Majority in House; Pelosi Poised to Become Speaker
_{(WASHINGTON POST) - November 8, 2006 7:19AM EST}

Democrats captured a majority in the House of Representatives in midterm elections Tuesday, as voters delivered a rebuke to the Bush administration and the governing Republicans amid an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq and a rash of scandals tainting GOP incumbents in several states.

The Senate, however, remained up for grabs, with Democrats winning four of the six Republican seats they needed for a majority there. Control of the Senate thus appeared to hinge on key races in Virginia and Montana. In Virginia, where Republican Sen. George Allen trailed Democrat James Webb by fewer than 3,000 votes with almost all precincts reporting, no winner had been declared as of early Wednesday. And in Montana, challenger Jon Tester, the Democratic president of the state Senate, was leading in a race to unseat Republican Conrad Burns, a veteran senator tainted by the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

In Missouri, Republican incumbent James M. Talent conceded defeat early Wednesday to Democrat Claire McCaskill, the state auditor. “Our efforts fell a little bit short,” he said. Minutes earlier, McCaskill had declared victory after opening a narrow lead with 85 percent of precincts reporting.

In Tennessee, the GOP held the seat being vacated by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, as Bob Corker, the Republican former mayor of Chattanooga, defeated Democratic Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr., who had hoped to become the first black senator elected from the South since Reconstruction. “I think we will hold control of the Senate,” Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said on CNN.

The Democratic victory in the House marked a fundamental power shift in Washington, where Republicans have held the chamber for the past dozen years. It put Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in position to take over next year as the first woman speaker of the House in U.S. history, and it posed a new challenge for President Bush during his final two years in the White House.

“Tonight is a great victory for the American people,” Pelosi said in a late-night speech in Washington. “Today the American people voted for change, and they voted for Democrats to take our country in a new direction.” She described the vote as a mandate “to restore stability and bipartisanship” in Washington and for “a new direction” in the war in Iraq.

“The American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, D.C., and the Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history,” Pelosi said. She added, “And nowhere did the American people make it more clear that we need a new direction than in the war in Iraq. ‘Stay the course’ has not made our country safer, has not honored our commitment to our troops and has not made the region more stable. We cannot continue down this catastrophic path.” She called on the Bush administration to work with Democrats “to find a solution to the war in Iraq.”

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SENATE

Democratic Hopes Rest on 2 Tight Races
_{(WASHINGTON POST) - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 2:20AM EST}

Democrats claimed victory in four crucial Senate races early today and held small leads in two others that would give their party the majority—and control of both congressional chambers. The Senate majority will turn on razor-thin races in Virginia and Montana, where recounts or legal challenges could delay the final outcome for days. Democrats moved within striking distance by ousting Republicans in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Missouri.

Republicans, facing voter hostility toward the Iraq war and the Bush administration, had hoped that the worst outcome would be a 50-to-50 Senate, allowing Vice President Cheney to break tie votes. With such a narrow margin, Senate Republicans probably would face difficult battles with the first Democratic-controlled House in a dozen years.

In every section of the country, Democrats attacked Republican incumbents for their links to President Bush, whose handling of Iraq was deeply unpopular with millions of voters. The war, coupled with Republican scandals, proved politically lethal to at least three GOP senators, including the party’s third-ranking senator, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. A sharp-tongued conservative and Bush loyalist, Santorum fell to Democrat Robert P. Casey Jr., the state treasurer and son of a popular former governor.

Another two-term Republican, Mike DeWine of Ohio, was hurt by events largely beyond his control, namely a string of scandals involving Ohio Republicans. Rep. Sherrod Brown (D), who touted his vote against the Iraq invasion, successfully hammered DeWine on his ties to the administration.

In heavily Democratic Rhode Island, Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R) stressed his independence from Bush and attacked the record of Democratic nominee Sheldon Whitehouse, a former state attorney general. But even his family’s famous name could not save Chafee this time.

Missouri’s Senate race had been close for weeks, with Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill attacking first-term Sen. James M. Talent’s ties to Bush. McCaskill, the state auditor, came out on top after campaigning feverishly in Missouri’s rural areas and small towns, where Democrats have faltered in past elections.

Republican hopes of grabbing Democratic seats in Maryland and New Jersey faltered, as spirited and well-funded campaigns appeared to fall short in states that traditionally are not friendly GOP turf. But Republicans won a tough contest in Tennessee.

And three-term Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), who lost the Democratic nomination to antiwar candidate Ned Lamont in August, was elected as an independent. He will caucus with the Democrats.

Democrats needed six new seats to take over the Senate, where the GOP’s 55 to 45 advantage was built largely on victories in the South two years ago. This year, many of the toughest contests were in the Northeast and in heartland areas such as Ohio and Missouri.

The Democratic strategy of criticizing Bush’s war strategy—without necessarily offering an alternative—was effective, according to nationwide surveys of voters exiting polling places. Clear majorities of respondents said the Iraq war was important or extremely important to them, and most of them backed Democratic candidates.

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Posted by The Skipper     on 11/08/2006 at 07:10 AM   
Filed Under: • Politics •  
• Comments (24) • Trackbacks(1)  Permalink •  

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
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4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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