Posted on 11/08/2006 12:07:22 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Democrats won control of the House early Wednesday after a dozen years of Republican rule in a resounding repudiation of a war, a president and a scandal-scarred Congress.
"From sea to shining sea, the American people voted for change," declared Rep. Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), the hard-charging California Democrat in line to become the nation's first female House speaker.
"Today we have made history," she said, "now let us make progress."
The White House made plans for President Bush to call the speaker-in-waiting first thing in the morning; he will enter his final two years in office with at least half of Congress in the opposition party's hands.
"It's been kind of tough out there," conceded House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., who won a 11th term. Presidential spokesman Tony Snow observed: "It's not like a slap on the forehead kind of shock."
By early Wednesday, Democrats had won 227 seats, enough for control, and were leading for another 6, which would give them 233. Republicans, who hold 229 seats in the current House, won 186 and were leading in another 16, which would give them 202.
Democrats had captured 26 Republican-controlled seats, and no Democratic incumbent had lost by early Wednesday. Races were too close to call in more than a dozen seats, making it impossible to know how large the Democratic margin would be.
Still, 2006 already was an eerie reversal of 1994, when the GOP gained 54 seats in a wave that toppled Democrats after four decades. No Republican incumbent lost that year.
This time, Republicans fell from power in nearly every region of the country — conservative, liberal and moderate — as well as in every type of district — urban, rural and suburban. Exit polls showed middle class voters who fled to the GOP a dozen years ago appeared to return to the Democrats.
Casualties of a Democratic call for change, three GOP congressmen lost in Indiana, three more in Pennsylvania, two in New Hampshire, one in North Carolina, one in Kansas, one in Iowa and more elsewhere. Democrats won open seats, that were held by Republicans, in New York, Ohio, Florida, Arizona, Colorado, Wisconsin, Iowa and Texas.
Scandals that have dogged Republicans appeared to hurt GOP incumbents even more than Bush's unpopularity and the nearly four-year-old war in Iraq.
Republicans surrendered the Texas seat of former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who left the House after being charged in a campaign finance scheme, the Ohio seat once held by Bob Ney, who resigned after pleading guilty in a lobbying scandal, and the Florida district of Mark Foley, who stepped down after the disclosure that he sent sexually explicit messages to male congressional pages.
In Pennsylvania, Democrats defeated Curt Weldon in the fallout from a federal corruption investigation and Don Sherwood who admitted to a long-term affair with a much younger woman who says he choked her.
"Today the American people voted for change and they voted for Democrats to take their country in a new direction, and that is exactly what we intend to do," Pelosi, who won an 11th term, told several hundred people celebrating in a Washington hotel ballroom.
A grandmother five times over, Pelosi vowed to restore integrity, civility and honesty to Capitol Hill and said: "Democrats promise to work together in a bipartisan way for all Americans."
As her remarks ended, U2's "Beautiful Day" blared and red, white and blue confetti drifted from above.
"You have given us a chance to turn this country around, and we'll give you the government that no longer lets you down." Rep. Rahm Emanuel (news, bio, voting record), the head of the Democrats' House campaign, told the crowd.
Ethics woes, the war and overall anger toward Bush appeared to drive voters to the Democrats, according to surveys by The Associated Press and the television networks of voters as they left voting places. Several traditionally hard-fought demographic groups were choosing Democrats, including independents, moderates, and suburban women.
Those exit polls also showed that three in four voters said corruption was very important to their vote, and they tended to vote Democratic. In a sign of a dispirited GOP base, most white evangelicals said corruption was very important to their vote — and almost a third of them turned to the Democrats.
Two out of three voters called the war very important to them and said they leaned toward the Democrats, while six in ten voters said they disapproved of the war. About the same number said they were dissatisfied with the president — and they were far more likely to vote Democratic.
Additionally, eight in ten voters called the economy very important to their House vote, and those who said it was extremely important — about four in ten voters — turned to Democrats.
All 435 House seats were on the ballot, and most incumbents won easy re-election. The current lineup: 229 Republicans, 201 Democrats, one independent who lines up with the Democrats for organizational purposes, and four vacancies, three of them in seats formerly held by Republicans.
The fight for control came down to 50 or so seats, nearly half in line from Connecticut through New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. All were in Republican hands, a blend of seats coming open and incumbents in trouble.
For months, national surveys showed Democrats favored over Republicans by margins unseen since 1990 as voters grew restless with the Bush administration and seemed more ready to end one-party rule on Capitol Hill.
American casualties and costs have climbed in Iraq, and public support for the war has fallen, as have approval ratings for Congress along with the president.
Scandals dogged the ruling party as well.
DeLay, R-Texas, was charged with participating in a campaign finance scheme and resigned from the House. Ney, R-Ohio, resigned, too, after pleading guilty in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling investigation. A month before the election, Foley, R-Fla., left office when it was disclosed that he had sent sexually explicit electronic communications to male, former congressional pages.
Through it all, Democrats cast the race as a national referendum on Bush and Iraq, accusing Republicans of walking in lockstep with the president and rubber stamping his policies.
Republicans insisted the elections came down to choices between individual candidates from coast to coast — and that Democrats were liberals who would raise taxes, flee from Iraq and be soft on terrorists.
Initially, Democrats targeted GOP-held seats left open by retiring Republicans as well as districts where Bush won by close margins in 2004 — many in the Northeast and Midwest. In recent weeks, Democrats were able to expand the battlefield, mounting plays for seats long in Republican hands, such as in Wyoming and Idaho.
The GOP made serious bids for only a handful of Democratic-held seats, including two districts in Georgia that the Republican legislature redrew to make more hospitable to the GOP. The only two endangered Democrats appeared to be in those districts, where the vote totals were so close the races appeared to be headed to recounts.
One of the Democratic victories was in Louisiana, where scandal-tarred Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) was forced into a runoff against another Democrat.
As the 2006 midterm campaign began, Republicans were optimistic they would extend their reign because they had limited GOP retirements, leaving fewer open seats as targets for Democrats.
Then violence increased in Iraq and scandals erupted in the House — knocking the GOP off course.
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In a time of war,, the Old Media continues its perverted distortions and takes sides with the left ,, in effect, aids and abets those who would seek this nation's capitulation to its enemies from around the globe and from within.
Democratic party supporters react as TV news first predict that the Democratic Party will control the U.S. House of Representatives at a mid-term election night party for the Democratic Party in Washington, November 7, 2006. Americans voted on Tuesday in elections for Congress that could curb the power of George W. Bush's Republicans, force a change of direction in Iraq and shape the legacy of a president with two years left in office. REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES)
America wanted a change alright, but I don't think they'll much like the one they're getting.
headline should read..
INsurgent Democrats win control of House (Classis MSM Pap Alert!)
anyone know if William Jefferson and Jim McDermott won?
Jim McDermott ALWAYS wins....by about 80%...YES...he won.
"America wanted a change alright, but I don't think they'll much like the one they're getting."
Agreed!
And I will say it again.
After a good dose of these moonbats a Republican is guaranteed to win the White House in 2008!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
so his supporters believe that violating federal communications law is OK?
Thanks,, just goes to show, If you're a dem, you can get away with murder.. still!
Jefferson won.
This is WASHINGTON, the STATE....you know....the one where it took the Governor THREE recounts to win....she lost the first two.....we're moving.....
This should make for quite the tap dance Pelosi puts on as Ethics investigations unfold under her dem "New Direction" mantra.
I'm sure she will pursue dems who commit and have committed ethical "lapses" as vigorously as republicans who run afoul of rules and laws, almost as vigorously as the MSM..
I wonder if they'll cheer like that when their party raises their taxes, ruins our health-care system, lets all the illegal immigrants flood in and ruin our economy and our job rate, destroys our military (as Clinton did) and surrenders our country to the islamo-facists.
Now that they have to lead we will find out they no plan.
Not a surprise. Thanks!
This should make for some interesting political theater next year.
"Democrats won control of the House early Wednesday after a dozen years of Republican rule in a resounding repudiation of a war, a president and a scandal-scarred Congress."
I thought this sort of thing "always happens" in the 6th year of an administration.
Perhaps America "threw a temper tantrum" last night.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Our new GOP slogan: "We tried to warn you..."
The Democrats now have to spend two years hiding who they are...if the Pubs play it right and smoke them out, it's good news.
They have a plan:
- raise the minimum wage
- the return of Hillarycare (with the criminalization of private practice medicine)
- amnesty and increased immigration
- continued efforts to look the other way on employers who pay illegal immigrants BELOW the minimum wage
- prosecution of the Bush Administration for being Republicans
- cut and run in Iraq and then blame the bloodbath there on the "latent" Civil War that was "Bush's fault"
- Constitutional amendment for same sex marriage/adoption/foster care.
- increased gasoline taxes to discourage combustible engine use
- increased funding of global warming research
- federal funding for fetal stem cell research
of course if they had run on that platform they wouldn't have won. "All politics are local" except the Left's which are "loco".
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