by Zach Bigalke

Created on: January 04, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

My how the mighty have fallen...the Republicans are in disarray, George W. Bush is on his heels, and both houses are in Democratic hands for the first time since 1994. George Allen's concession in Virginia was the final nail in the lame-duck coffin of the Bush presidency. Incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has voiced her intentions to implement changes in what she calls the "catastrophic path" of current Iraqi policy. Now General Peter Pace, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has also spoken out for a change in the tactics in the crusade for Enduring Freedom. "We have to give ourselves a good honest scrub about what is working and what is not working...and what should we change about the way we are doing it,.. Pace stated to CBS. "We continuously review what's going right, what's going wrong, what needs to change..."

And change has already started apace. In the wake of the Congressional change toward Democratic control, Donald Rumsfeld .. the insidious viper that lorded over the military as Secretary of Defense and signed off on the plethora of atrocities committed in the name of American interests .. resigned from his post in the wake of the clear mandate issued by the voting public this midterm election. Now he faces international prosecution. By a fascinating loophole of German law, which permits for trials of international crimes anywhere in the world through the German judicial system, Rumsfeld may potentially stand trial for his role as mastermind and spearhead of the military movement of broad prisoner abuse and torture at Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq. The United States-based Center for Constitutional Rights, representing a Saudi detainee at Guantanamo and eleven Iraqis detained in Baghdad, stands to be filed on 14 November with German federal prosecutors. The group alleges that Rumsfeld personally approved interrogatory torture, and that he was the linchpin for the systematic abuse of military power. While a similar petition was rejected in 2004, the group of attorneys is plugging ahead and naming other figureheads in the case...

A lot of gnashing of teeth and stamping the dirt is taking place in the aftermath of the final results. Defeated incumbents are taking their last swings; incoming freshmen are sharpening their blades. Bush is reeling with the knowledge that his fortress is crumbling under torrents of citizen unrest. A trusted compatriot has ridden into the sunset toward the firing squad; he knows that his days are numbered. And

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