Democrats Take House

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
November 8, 2006
Pg. 1

Two Dozen Seats Gained in House
By Dan Balz, Washington Post Staff Writer
Democrats recaptured the House last night, defeating Republican incumbents in every region of the country, and were close to gaining control of the Senate in midterm elections dominated by war, scandal and President Bush's leadership.
By early this morning, Democrats had picked up more than two dozen Republican-held House seats without losing any of their own, putting Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) into position to become the nation's first female speaker.
In an increasingly tense battle for control of the Senate, Democrats won seats in Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Virginia and Montana remained undecided, but Democrats were leading in those states, both needed to win power.
In Virginia, Sen. George Allen (R) trailed former Navy secretary James Webb by fewer than 7,800 votes. In Montana, Sen. Conrad Burns (R) was running about 10,000 votes behind state Senate President Jon Tester.
Democrats also scored heavily in gubernatorial races, picking up at least seven states to claim a majority nationally.
The upheaval in the House and the changing balance in the Senate signaled a dramatic power shift in Washington that will alter the final two years of Bush's presidency, with resurgent Democrats expected to challenge the administration on its domestic priorities and the Iraq war.
Pelosi joined other Democratic leaders at a boisterous rally just after midnight and sounded themes that others in her party echoed throughout the night.
"Today the American people voted for change and they voted for Democrats to take our country in a new direction, and that is exactly what we intend to do," she said. "The American people voted for a new direction to restore civility and bipartisanship in Washington, D.C., and Democrats promise to work together in a bipartisan way for all Americans."
Bush remained at the White House and will speak to reporters at a news conference at 1 p.m. today. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) won reelection but acknowledged the inevitable when he told supporters in Illinois, "It's kind of tough out there."
Republicans lost almost regardless of their ideology or support for the president. Conservative Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), the most vulnerable incumbent throughout the year, was the first senator to fall, losing to state Treasurer Robert P. Casey Jr. Not long after, Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine (R), known for working across party lines, fell to Rep. Sherrod Brown after being caught up in the undertow of state GOP scandals, economic woes and the impact of the Iraq war on Buckeye State voters.
Then came Rhode Island, where Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee, the son of a beloved former senator and one of the most liberal Republicans in Washington, lost to former attorney general Sheldon Whitehouse in a state where Bush's popularity is among the lowest in the nation.
Early this morning, Missouri state Auditor Claire McCaskill (D) defeated Sen. James M. Talent in one of the year's closest races.
But in Tennessee, Republicans claimed one of the other premier races when former Chattanooga mayor Bob Corker (R) defeated Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. in the election to succeed retiring Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R).
In one of the most-watched Senate races, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, who lost the Democratic primary to businessman Ned Lamont because of his support for the war and the president, turned the tables and easily won reelection.
In New York, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) rolled up a big margin as she cruised to a reelection victory that is widely seen as a step toward a presidential campaign in 2008.
In New Jersey, appointed Sen. Robert Menendez (D) overcame a challenge from state Sen. Thomas H. Kean Jr., robbing Republicans of a seat that not long ago they thought they may be able to win. In Minnesota, a newcomer, Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar, held on to the seat of a retiring Democratic senator. In Maryland, Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin (D) was the winner over Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele in the contest to succeed retiring Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D).
In Massachusetts, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D) won an eighth term. Democrats also held Senate seats in Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Michigan, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. In Vermont, Rep. Bernard Sanders (I) won the seat of retiring Independent Sen. James M. Jeffords.
Republicans held on to their Senate seats in Arizona, Indiana, Maine, Mississippi, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
House results trickled in at first and then came in a torrent. Some of the most prominent Republicans were among the losers last night.
One was Rep. Nancy L. Johnson (Conn.), who won her first race in 1982 when Republicans were losing two dozen districts. She lost to state Sen. Chris Murphy. In Kentucky, Rep. Anne M. Northup has been targeted by Democrats in virtually every election but until last night was a survivor. She was defeated by John Yarmuth, editor of an alternative newspaper.
In Iowa, Rep. Jim Leach (R), who was not considered particularly vulnerable, lost to Dave Loebsack in a district that Sen. John F. Kerry won in the 2004 presidential election.
In Florida, Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr., one of the most powerful Republicans in the House, lost his reelection bid to state Sen. Ron Klein. Republicans also lost the seat of former congressman Mark Foley (R), who resigned in disgrace over sexually explicit Internet messages sent to a former House page.
In Arizona, Rep. J.D. Hayworth, one of the GOP's most vocal and visible conservatives and a hard-liner on immigration, lost his reelection bid to former state senator Harry Mitchell. The Arizona Republic newspaper had endorsed Mitchell, referring to Hayworth as a "bully."
Republicans lost the scandal-scarred seats of former congressman Robert W. Ney in Ohio and former House majority leader Tom DeLay in Texas. Scandal also contributed to the defeat of two Pennsylvania incumbents, Rep. Curt Weldon (R), who lost to retired Navy Vice Adm. Joseph Sestak, and Rep. Don Sherwood (R), who fell to Christopher Carney.
The Northeast proved particularly difficult for Republicans. New Hampshire voters defeated both of their GOP incumbents. Only a few weeks ago, Reps. Charles Bass and Jeb Bradley appeared headed for reelection, but their races changed almost overnight. Bass was defeated by lawyer Paul Hodes, while Bradley lost to Carol Shea-Porter, a county chairman. She won a second straight upset last night after riding opposition to the war to a surprise primary victory.
In gubernatorial races, Democrats gained seven states and now control a majority nationwide. Big prizes included New York, where Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer won handily against weak opposition, and Ohio, where Rep. Ted Strickland swamped Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell. In Massachusetts, Clinton administration assistant attorney general Deval Patrick defeated Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, who was attempting to succeed Gov. Mitt Romney (R).
Republicans had controlled all three states for more than a decade.
Democrats picked up a Southern seat when Arkansas Attorney General Mike Beebe defeated Asa Hutchinson for the post of retiring Gov. Mike Huckabee (R). They also added to their impressive strength among governors in the Rocky Mountains when Denver prosecutor Bill Ritter defeated Rep. Bob Beauprez in Colorado.
The gubernatorial contest in Minnesota remained undecided early this morning.
A national exit poll of voters in House races, conducted by Edison/Mitofsky for the National Election Pool, showed Democrats carrying independent voters, who emerged this fall as a critically important constituency in the midterm elections, by a wide margin. Meanwhile, about 90 percent of Republicans and Democrats were supporting candidates from their own parties, but independents were siding decisively with Democrats.
The divides that have defined the nation's politics over the past two years shaped yesterday's vote, but those hostile to the Bush administration, unhappy with Congress or pessimistic about the direction of the country far outnumbered those who approve of the performance of Bush and Congress or who think the country is heading in the right direction.
Four in five voters who approve of Bush's performance were supporting Republicans in House races, while an equal number of those who disapprove of his performance were supporting Democrats. But those who disapprove of the way the president has handled his job outnumber those who approve by about three to two.
Voters cited a series of issues that were extremely important in determining their candidate preferences, according to the national exit poll. They were not asked the most important issue affecting their votes.
About four in 10 voters called corruption and scandals in government an important issue and said they were voting heavily for Democratic candidates in the House. Forty percent said that the issue of terrorism was extremely important in their vote and that they were narrowly supporting Republican House candidates.
About four in 10 also cited the economy and said they were backing Democratic House candidates by a wide margin. Iraq, which has dominated much of the fall debate, was another issue that about four in 10 called extremely important in their votes, and they were also heavily backing Democrats.
 
Watching the news coverage of the US elections right now, I wonder how Bush will cope with the change of seats.
 
There is also a serious possibility that the Democrats will take the Senate as well. There are 2 contested seats, and one of them is almost certainly going Democrat (Virginia).
 
Watching the news coverage of the US elections right now, I wonder how Bush will cope with the change of seats.

Bush's advisors will mobilize the lawyers and reverse the results using a series of deceptions such as tampering with the franchise itself. How about a "recount" where democrat votes disappear? The Republicans are known for this sort of thing.

The Democrats have not yet taken the House...American elections are determined by groups of lawyers who scutinize the authenticity of every vote. Whatever happened to the idea of paper ballots that were collected and counted by volunteers and checked by other volunteers?
 
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The chest pounding that I've seen here and across the internet does nothing to prove that anyone elected deserve the position.

We will have to judge if the election results provide for the country what it needs.

Each side will have their own conclusions. The good news is that the balance of power is now a little more ballanced as well as IF the democrats have both the house and senate they cannot push through bills that are too liberal to be accepted by the President and when VETOed those bills will not have enough backing to be reversed unless they are actually good bills that need to be passed. Then, as before, we will get something that is more middle of the road and good for both majority parties and their members (I'm speaking of us'ns that alive and work here.)
 
I say the Republicans act like the Dems and start calling out voter fraud and demand recounts all over the place....

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Bush's advisors will mobilize the lawyers and reverse the results using a series of deceptions such as tampering with the franchise itself. How about a "recount" where democrat votes disappear? The Republicans are known for this sort of thing.

The Democrats have not yet taken the House...American elections are determined by groups of lawyers who scutinize the authenticity of every vote. Whatever happened to the idea of paper ballots that were collected and counted by volunteers and checked by other volunteers?

You have it backwards silly....And furthermore you clearly have no idea how America works other than what you see on television...
 
You have it backwards silly....And furthermore you clearly have no idea how America works other than what you see on television...

That's right...I am not as enlightened as you are...I apologize for my idiocy. Only Americans really know. The American educational system is top. The American think tanks are top. And the media hands enlightenment straight to the citizen. That is the epistemological lesson of the new century. Please, teach me how America works.

And...by the way...where is France on a globe?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcz_NHAFGS0
 
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That's right...I am not as enlightened as you are...I apologize for my idiocy. Only Americans really know. The American educational system is top. The American think tanks are top. And the media hands enlightenment straight to the citizen. That is the epistemological lesson of the new century. Please, teach me how America works.

And...by the way...where is France on a globe?
[FONT=&quot]You only make yourself sound even less creditable...

You make obvious assumptions from what has been in the headlines of main stream news media as of late and think that is how
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]America[/FONT][FONT=&quot] works.

Why do I know this well because of your obvious incorrect statement of paper ballots and volunteers. For instance the state of Connecticut where I reside most places use Mechanical Lever type voting machines which record to a paper tape (they require no power other than for a fluorescent lamp to illuminate the voting booth), they are then counted by Volunteers. Again you are making obvious refrences of what you think you know form what you have heard.

So I suppose I should start dictating to you how the German government works I mean really it has been sooooooo successful. Do we really want to get into referencing assumptions and opinions?
[/FONT]
 
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That's right...I am not as enlightened as you are...I apologize for my idiocy. Only Americans really know. The American educational system is top. The American think tanks are top. And the media hands enlightenment straight to the citizen. That is the epistemological lesson of the new century. Please, teach me how America works.

And...by the way...where is France on a globe?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcz_NHAFGS0

I was in Paris last summer. As I was leaving to head back to the U.S. I went into a shop at the Airport to get a Coke. When I reached for my wallet there were no less than 6 Frenchmen that surrendered to me. That just about says it all about France.
 
Well now the dems have the senate and despite their 1 man superiority in that chamber, it still feels pretty good to hear that the republicans don't have the upper hand anymore. I like this result a lot since it will make the government work better and more efficiently with compromise instead of stand offs.
 
Well now the dems have the senate and despite their 1 man superiority in that chamber, it still feels pretty good to hear that the republicans don't have the upper hand anymore. I like this result a lot since it will make the government work better and more efficiently with compromise instead of stand offs.

You are right, bills pass the house and senate by a small margin and the President starts using the pens from the VETO Pens Fund I started. With enough donations I'm supplying the President's pens for each crappy bill that goes to him to be signed into law! This is going to be some fun to watch the libs cry in their beer!
 
I was in Paris last summer. As I was leaving to head back to the U.S. I went into a shop at the Airport to get a Coke. When I reached for my wallet there were no less than 6 Frenchmen that surrendered to me. That just about says it all about France.
*snicker* Poor guys...Haha...Anyway...Ollie, you aren't as enlightened as Americans are because you aren't American. Unless you watch American news every day...Americans like to think that we know a bit more about our own internal workings that a foreigner...
 
[FONT=&quot]You only make yourself sound even less creditable...[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]You make obvious assumptions from what has been in the headlines of main stream news media as of late and think that is how [/FONT][FONT=&quot]America[/FONT][FONT=&quot] works.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Why do I know this well because of your obvious incorrect statement of paper ballots and volunteers. For instance the state of Connecticut where I reside most places use Mechanical Lever type voting machines which record to a paper tape (they require no power other than for a fluorescent lamp to illuminate the voting booth), they are then counted by Volunteers. Again you are making obvious refrences of what you think you know form what you have heard.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]So I suppose I should start dictating to you how the German government works I mean really it has been sooooooo successful. Do we really want to get into referencing assumptions and opinions?[/FONT]

Your argumentation style is typical of Republicanism:

1. The "electronic machines" were used in most states. They might not use these systems where you live, but that hardly holds for the rest of the US. Maybe you should learn how YOUR own country actually works before criticizing others. In this case, you made yourself look quite ridiculous.

http://www.electiondataservices.com/EDSInc_VEStudy2006.pdf :read:

2. I made no comments about the German government. You are in fact arguing that I am a pro-German biggot who is simply "pooping" on America. This theory was made dependent on one fact -- the flag under my name. What a joke? Did you use this type of tactic in school? Did your teachers and/or profs actually let you get away with such things? How sad and pathetic.

Criticism is not biggotry nor is it self-proclaimed superiority. There is an important element missing from your analysis...mostly because it was fabricated, contrived and illusory. I do not care about the German electoral or political system. I do not even vote. The German system is determined by political parties and not by ANY attention to the electorate. Elections are only the struggles of parties to gain control of taxation Euros...for their own greedy reasons. Sound familiar?

Concerning my viewpoints, it should be argued that I am a person genuinely searching for REAL democracy...not the farcical systems that pretend to support the interests of the "great beast".
 
You are right, bills pass the house and senate by a small margin and the President starts using the pens from the VETO Pens Fund I started. With enough donations I'm supplying the President's pens for each crappy bill that goes to him to be signed into law! This is going to be some fun to watch the libs cry in their beer!

Bush has hardly shown that he does veto. In the last 6 years he has vetoed one single bill. Anyway, look at the current republicans in the senate and you will see one thing: many of them are moderate. They will vote with the democrats on some issues because their voting base will demand it. Which means it may not be too hard for democrats to gain the 2/3 veto override in the house.
 
Bush has hardly shown that he does veto. In the last 6 years he has vetoed one single bill. Anyway, look at the current republicans in the senate and you will see one thing: many of them are moderate. They will vote with the democrats on some issues because their voting base will demand it. Which means it may not be too hard for democrats to gain the 2/3 veto override in the house.

Time will tell, but again you are trying to impress your liberal way of thinking on to those that are in the senate. A democrats based :BS: bill will not gain 2/3 of the senate to overturn a VETO.
 
Your argumentation style is typical of Republicanism:

1. The "electronic machines" were used in most states. They might not use these systems where you live, but that hardly holds for the rest of the US. Maybe you should learn how YOUR own country actually works before criticizing others. In this case, you made yourself look quite ridiculous.

http://www.electiondataservices.com/EDSInc_VEStudy2006.pdf :read:

2. I made no comments about the German government. You are in fact arguing that I am a pro-German biggot who is simply "pooping" on America. This theory was made dependent on one fact -- the flag under my name. What a joke? Did you use this type of tactic in school? Did your teachers and/or profs actually let you get away with such things? How sad and pathetic.

Criticism is not biggotry nor is it self-proclaimed superiority. There is an important element missing from your analysis...mostly because it was fabricated, contrived and illusory. I do not care about the German electoral or political system. I do not even vote. The German system is determined by political parties and not by ANY attention to the electorate. Elections are only the struggles of parties to gain control of taxation Euros...for their own greedy reasons. Sound familiar?

Concerning my viewpoints, it should be argued that I am a person genuinely searching for REAL democracy...not the farcical systems that pretend to support the interests of the "great beast".

Wow, someone knows how to use a thesaurus and thinks they can dazzle with a grand vocabulary.

For your information America is not a Democracy it is a Representative Republic. Democracy only exists on a state level and even then it is limited, you don't really get into true democracy until the city/town level. But let us not forget that a true democracy is what our Forefathers where afraid of and for good reason.

BTW Optical Scan is just a method for counting a paper ballot. :lol:

I take your point and I was being rude you just come off like an ass, as I'm sure I do to you.

Plus you had it backwards with the lawyers.
 
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Wow, someone knows how to use a thesaurus and thinks they can dazzle with a grand vocabulary.

For your information America is not a Democracy it is a Representative Republic. Democracy only exists on a state level and even then it is limited, you don't really get into true democracy until the city/town level. But let us not forget that a true democracy is what our Forefathers where afraid of and for good reason.

BTW Optical Scan is just a method for counting a paper ballot. :lol:

I take your point and I was being rude you just come off like an ass, as I'm sure I do to you.

Plus you had it backwards with the lawyers.

I like being an ass, I guess. One thing, however. I am getting sick and tired of hearing forum members claim that the US is not a democracy. This is just bizarre. Why, for example, would Bush want to make the world safe for democracy if the US was not a democracy? Maybe you do not believe me, and are thinking about the drunk who taught you political science? Well, why not see the following and sober up:

1. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: "The United States had its own struggles with democracy, she said, noting that it was not until 1965 that all American citizens were guaranteed the right to vote. “[W]hile our institutions were created to sustain, support and protect democracy, ... they were initially institutions of a very limited franchise, but ... over time, little by little, step by step, brick by brick, the United States has included more of its population in the democratic enterprise,” she said, adding that the same process might be expected for other evolving democracies."

2. Core Documents of U.S. Democracy: "To provide American citizens direct online access to the basic Federal Government documents that define our democratic society".

http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/d...November&x=20061106162919mlenuhret6.72549e-03

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/coredocs.html

We are actually both "wrong" about the lawyer issue (2000): "Due to the narrow margin of the original vote count, Florida law mandated a statewide recount". The Democrats requested a recount in three counties. I was referring to the Republican method of disenfranchising people (mostly Afro-Americans) prior to the election. Forget about this issue, however. The point I was unclear on was that "The Bush campaign sued to prevent additional recounts on the basis that no errors were found in the tabulation method until subjective measures were applied in manual recounts".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election,_2000

(I rarely use a thesaurus anymore. The strange thing about education is that one actually learns something every now and then).
 
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