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 those especially motivated of the career politicians are beginning now .. only days after some of them were reelected .. to prepare their high-octane campaigns for the presidency. A provisional list, provided by BBC News, rests below of the potentials gathering strength...or who were before the election.
REPUBLICANS
John McCain (Arizona)
George Allen (Virginia)
Mitt Romney (Massachusetts)
Mike Huckabee (Arkansas)
Sam Brownback (Kansas)
DEMOCRATS
Hillary Clinton (New York)
John Kerry (Massachusetts)
Joseph Biden (Delaware)
Evan Bayh (Indiana)
Barack Obama (Illinois)
Of the Republicans, only McCain still appears as a legitimate candidate. His hard-line separation from the Bush-driven autocratic party-line philosophies has placed McCain in a good light following this election. Allen, in losing Virginia and the Senate for the Republicans, has faded into obscurity. Twenty years from now he will be a Jeopardy! question...
TREBEK (between blasts from large oxygen tank next to rostrum): The Senator who lost his Senate seat in Virginia in 2006 to give the Democrats control of both seats of Congress.
CONTESTANT: Who is George Allen?
The Democrats appear poised to rise. Hillary retained her seat in New York with $20 million to spare. Biden stands to gain prominence under Democratic control. Bayh and Obama positioned themselves with strong campaigns for fellow Democrats in the midterms. While Kerry has put his foot in his mouth with comments against Bush, he still garners name recognition in homes across America. The surge begins apace...
But two years are a long time...this whole race hinges on what the Democrats do with their control over the seven-hundred days. If substantive change happens with both domestic and foreign policy, then Democratic hopefuls will have a chance to solidify control of the Beltway with the executive and legislative branches. If they botch their chance in a flood of politicking and red herrings, then the Republicans will get the toe-hold that will turn this tidal wave of sentiment into a meekly fading shore-lapper.
And that would be the greatest injustice of all. The gain of both houses of Congress is a landslide that even the Democrats couldn..t have hoped for too realistically. This blessed gift must be cherished; if they treat it like a kid with a piece of molded plastic on Christmas morning, tossed and hurled around and broken by dinnertime, then they will be no better than the swine they have unseated. And devolution of that magnitude would be calamitous, setting the party back another twenty years...