First and most important – thank you. Thank you to all the citizens who voted Tuesday to begin to take our country back from those who would turn America into a totalitarian state. I not only had the pleasure of voting at the electric company in my Burlington neighborhood in the morning but later watched my friend Kenny vote at a public school in Brooklyn at 7 in the evening. I woke on Wednesday eager – for the first time in many months – to find what the news would bring.
The news got better as the day went on. More seats in both the House and Senate fell to the Democrats, with Virginia Republican George “Macaca” Allen finally falling apart at 9 p.m. The most satisfying news of the day was, of course, the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
All through the campaign, George Bush taunted the Democrats for being weak and indecisive, but how weak can Democrats be if, two months before they actually take control of Congress, the toughest of Mr. Bush’s tough guys turns tail and runs rather than contemplate having to answer their questions? Donald Rumsfeld is a bully and like a bully, when he realized that a Democratic-controlled Congress would challenge him the way the lapdog Republicans never did, he didn’t stand and fight, he wet himself and left the room. If the Dems are this good at intimidating their foes, perhaps Osama will surrender by the end of the year.
Mr. Bush lied about this last week. In campaign mode, he boasted to reporters last week that neither Mr. Rumsfeld nor Vice President Dick Cheney would resign before January 2009. It would be wonderful if the second half of that promise was as false as the first. I’m sure many Democratic senators and congressional reps are waiting to call Mr. Cheney and his aides to oversight hearings and remind them, “We won the elections. This is our due.” Senator Pat Leahy may also have a special message for Mr. Cheney.
Mr. Rumsfeld’s successor is former CIA Director Robert Gates. Given his penchant for misdirection, perhaps Mr. Bush appointed Bob Gates hoping that the country would mistake him for Bill Gates, maybe Mr. Bush mistakes him for Bill Gates.
Mr. Gates is part of George H. W. Bush’s circle of advisors and therefore represents a significant upgrade in sanity over the current crop of Bushites. Analysts are already predicting Mr. Gates will ally himself with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to push back the irrational Cheney neocon crowd and if Mr. Gates has any sense, he’s extracted promises of political support from Mr. Bush.
A strategic reason for Mr. Rumsfeld’s early departure is that perhaps the White House will try to get Mr. Gates confirmed by the Senate in a lame-duck session before the end of the year, thus sparing him the ordeal of having to face an Armed Services Committee run by Democrats.
In Virginia, Mr. Allen has been refusing to concede defeat, hoping a canvass of the state’s polling places will exhibit enough anomalies to allow him to ask for a recount of ballots, but many Virginia precinct use electronic voting machines which don’t record actual votes, but only totals which may or may not be correct. Good-government advocates have been warning for over two years that these types of machines make recounts impossible. Those warnings have found cool reception among Republican operatives, who will now perhaps rethink their position.
If James Webb’s victory in Virginia and Jon Tester’s in Montana hold up, Democrats will hold 49 seats in the Senate and Republicans 49. There will be two independents in the upper house, Bernie Sanders, the socialist from Vermont (the first such creature in the Senate) and… Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.
Bernie will caucus with the Democrats, as he did when he was in the House and Mr. Lieberman, who lost the Democratic primary in June, has said he will do the same. On the other hand, Republicans gave Mr. Lieberman considerable support in the general election, abandoning their own candidate, donating money and providing praise from such figures as Mr. Cheney.
Five months ago, Mr. Lieberman was all but a pariah among Democrats, who mocked him as a closet Republican. Now, both parties will court him with offers of plum committee assignments, because if Mr. Lieberman should “come out of the closet” and switch parties, it would hand control of the Senate back to the GOP.
Cut and Rumsfeld
First and most important – thank you. Thank you to all the citizens who voted Tuesday to begin to take our country back from those who would turn America into a totalitarian state. I not only had the pleasure of voting at the electric company in my Burlington neighborhood in the morning but later watched my friend Kenny vote at a public school in Brooklyn at 7 in the evening. I woke on Wednesday eager – for the first time in many months – to find what the news would bring.
The news got better as the day went on. More seats in both the House and Senate fell to the Democrats, with Virginia Republican George “Macaca” Allen finally falling apart at 9 p.m. The most satisfying news of the day was, of course, the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
All through the campaign, George Bush taunted the Democrats for being weak and indecisive, but how weak can Democrats be if, two months before they actually take control of Congress, the toughest of Mr. Bush’s tough guys turns tail and runs rather than contemplate having to answer their questions? Donald Rumsfeld is a bully and like a bully, when he realized that a Democratic-controlled Congress would challenge him the way the lapdog Republicans never did, he didn’t stand and fight, he wet himself and left the room. If the Dems are this good at intimidating their foes, perhaps Osama will surrender by the end of the year.
Mr. Bush lied about this last week. In campaign mode, he boasted to reporters last week that neither Mr. Rumsfeld nor Vice President Dick Cheney would resign before January 2009. It would be wonderful if the second half of that promise was as false as the first. I’m sure many Democratic senators and congressional reps are waiting to call Mr. Cheney and his aides to oversight hearings and remind them, “We won the elections. This is our due.” Senator Pat Leahy may also have a special message for Mr. Cheney.
Mr. Rumsfeld’s successor is former CIA Director Robert Gates. Given his penchant for misdirection, perhaps Mr. Bush appointed Bob Gates hoping that the country would mistake him for Bill Gates, maybe Mr. Bush mistakes him for Bill Gates.
Mr. Gates is part of George H. W. Bush’s circle of advisors and therefore represents a significant upgrade in sanity over the current crop of Bushites. Analysts are already predicting Mr. Gates will ally himself with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to push back the irrational Cheney neocon crowd and if Mr. Gates has any sense, he’s extracted promises of political support from Mr. Bush.
A strategic reason for Mr. Rumsfeld’s early departure is that perhaps the White House will try to get Mr. Gates confirmed by the Senate in a lame-duck session before the end of the year, thus sparing him the ordeal of having to face an Armed Services Committee run by Democrats.
In Virginia, Mr. Allen has been refusing to concede defeat, hoping a canvass of the state’s polling places will exhibit enough anomalies to allow him to ask for a recount of ballots, but many Virginia precinct use electronic voting machines which don’t record actual votes, but only totals which may or may not be correct. Good-government advocates have been warning for over two years that these types of machines make recounts impossible. Those warnings have found cool reception among Republican operatives, who will now perhaps rethink their position.
If James Webb’s victory in Virginia and Jon Tester’s in Montana hold up, Democrats will hold 49 seats in the Senate and Republicans 49. There will be two independents in the upper house, Bernie Sanders, the socialist from Vermont (the first such creature in the Senate) and… Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.
Bernie will caucus with the Democrats, as he did when he was in the House and Mr. Lieberman, who lost the Democratic primary in June, has said he will do the same. On the other hand, Republicans gave Mr. Lieberman considerable support in the general election, abandoning their own candidate, donating money and providing praise from such figures as Mr. Cheney.
Five months ago, Mr. Lieberman was all but a pariah among Democrats, who mocked him as a closet Republican. Now, both parties will court him with offers of plum committee assignments, because if Mr. Lieberman should “come out of the closet” and switch parties, it would hand control of the Senate back to the GOP.
© Mark Floegel, 2006