Hoorah! Yippee! Ziperoo!

Democrats take Senate, complete power sweep

Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:44 AM IST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrats completed their sweeping power grab of the U.S. Congress on Thursday and quickly moved from bitter campaign rhetoric to pledges to find common ground with President George W. Bush when possible.

The Democrats sealed control of Congress by taking a 51-49 majority in the Senate with former Navy Secretary Jim Webb’s defeat of Republican Sen. George Allen in a Virginia race so close it almost required a recount.

“The election’s over. It’s time for a change,” said Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, who will become Senate majority leader. “It’s time for bipartisanship, it’s time for open government, transparency, and it’s a time for results.”

Allen, who lost by less than 10,000 votes, conceded defeat, ending two days of uncertainty after Tuesday’s elections.

Democrats easily seized control of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, gaining about 30 seats. But wresting the Senate from Republicans awaited the outcome of the Webb-Allen race.

“I do not wish to cause more rancor by protracted litigation which would, in my judgment, not alter the results,” Allen said.

Faced with a new political landscape in Washington, Bush signaled a more conciliatory approach on Iraq as he and the new House leaders pledged to work together but conceded they would have differences.

He had a White House lunch with Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who was clearly pleased at the prospect of becoming the first woman speaker of the House.

Bush called the talks, which included No. 2 House Democrat Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Vice President Dick Cheney, constructive and friendly. He said with the elections over, it was time to address America’s challenges.

“We won’t agree on every issue. But we do agree that we love America equally, that we’re concerned about the future of this country and that we will do our very best to address big problems,” Bush said.

Pelosi, who complained bitterly about Bush on the campaign trail, beamed as she sat in the place of honor next to the president beneath a portrait of George Washington in the Oval Office.

“I look forward to working in a confidence-building way with the president recognizing that we have our differences and we will debate them, and that is what our founders intended, but we will do so in a way that gets results for the American people,” she said…..

...Bush sounded willing to consider ideas for a shift in course in Iraq during remarks he made after meeting with his Cabinet.”I’m open to any idea or suggestion that will help us achieve our goals of defeating the terrorists and ensuring that Iraq’s democratic government succeeds,” Bush said.

His chastened tone came a day after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation was announced. The nominee to replace him, former CIA Director Robert Gates, is expected to have a more open mind on Iraq.

... in a good way. And it’s nice to see the Dems winning gubernatorial races too.

Donald Rumpsfeld has finally resigned from his post after all these years. The Democrates has controll over both the house and the senate plus on top of that they have a new defense secretary to help better the course in Iraq.

This is the perfect day that we’ve been forever waiting for. And although it’s raining here in Rhode Island, it still feels like the sun is shinning down on us. We are out of the darkness and walking into the light.

As I write this it looks as though Virginia is going Democratic too to tie the Democratic Senators with the Republican Senators at 49 each. The 2 independents are democratic leaning, so we’ll have a majority there as well as in the House of Representatives.

In my state, our Democratic governor was reelected via a wide margin, and that silver-tongued senator Rick Santorum was soundly defeated by Democrat Bob Casey Jr. (Let it be known though that while he’s registered Democrat, his views on many liberal concerns are actually quite conservative.) In my area, the Republican representative was reelected which I had expected though there was a nice turnout of Democratic votes. Also in our state senate race the unopposed Republican won though I did get a write-in vote against him.

I think the biggest news of the day though is that Rumsfeld is out. That shows that Bush realizes that the country is fed up with their secret agendas and half-truths. It’s time to focus on our needs as a nation, and help us heal our own wounds instead of inflicting more on other nations.

I’m also concerned about the Senate. We’re not out of the woods on that one yet – as of right now, the races in Virginia and Montana are considered too close to call. I’m rooting for Democrats in both of these states, even though I have no connections to either place. I’m not really familiar with the circumstances in Montana, but I’m especially praying for Webb, our guy in Virginia. Ever since his opponent made that infamous “macaca” comment, I’ve believed that Allen is an asshole who must go!

We need montana and virgina to have controll of the senate. Am excited to know that us Democrates has once again in controll of the house. In a few hours we will also have controll of the senate and finally some great changes will happen in the near future.

Great job to all the Democrates that voted yesterday. We totally rocked the voting boothes and lets keep it that way for our presidential election. Barack Obama is the man to vote for in ‘08.

What a night.

Yay Democrats !!

....as i go to bed tonight, the Democrats have swept the House, and are 2 states (Virginia and Montana) from taking control in the Senate as well. Such a relief….

Even here in conservative Ohio, we voted in a democratic Governor, defeated a long held republican Senate seat, and saw a Democratic sweep of most StateHouse offices….Wheew! Feels Good!!

most unfortunately tho, i woke up very ill with a bad case of bronchitis, so i wasnt able to contribute my “Drive the Vote” volunteering to the cause… Best i could do was grab a stack of “League of Women Voters” voter info pamphlets, and hand them out at my polling place. But i did vote - no high fever or persistant hacking cough was going to stop ME from adding my drop to the Democratic Tide - !!

On a different humorous Note:

I heard a NPR commentator saying that the Republicans were making their way through the 5 stages of Grief

• Denial

• Anger

• Bargaining

• Depression

• acceptancethis may take alot of them quite a while to get to….

Thanks to everyone who came out to vote for Democrats. It’s been a real nail biter.