“Contract with America” REVOKED! Democrats regain control of the House after 12 years!

And as of this writing, Democrats cling to slim leads in the Virginia and Missouri Senate races, both currently held by Republicans. Victory in these two states will give the SENATE to the Democrats as well! (I’ll update this figure as the returns come in.)

Nancy Pelosi will be the next Speaker of the House. First woman Speaker in history! (Anybody seen Dennis Hastert, lately?)

All night long, the talking heads on TV have been doing their best to “minimize” the meaning of this dramatic victory for Democrats with the observation: “Yes, the Democrats won, but only by running some VERY Conservative Democrats!” Expect this to be a common refrain in the days to come.

Oddities worth mentioning:

Incumbent Texas Governor Rick Perry wins re-election with a scant 39% of the vote. Thanks to not one, but TWO Independents splitting the anti-Perry vote, the Texas Governor was able to declare victory despite 61% of voters voted against him. That’s just wrong! I’ve been a vocal opponent of candidates winning multi-Party races with less than 50% of the vote. I think that when this happens, the top two vote getters should have a “run off” election. The simplest solution to this is something called “instant runoff”, where you also enter your “second choice” when voting in multi-candidate races. If your candidate doesn’t come in one of the top two spots, your “second choice” is counted instead. No need to go to the polls a second time.

I’ve never seen a better argument for “instant runoff” than the Perry “victory” today.

In a very SAD example of Republican denial, Tom DeLay’s former TX District-22 (R) candidate Shelley Sekula-Gibbs (see story below) was still refusing to concede the election to (D) Nick Lampson even after trailing by 14% with 92% of precincts reporting, and having trailed Lampson by approximately 10 points all night long.



In Connecticut, former DINO (Democrat In Name Only) Joe Lieberman defeated true Democrat Ned Lamont 48% to 40%, with the “official” Republican candidate finishing with a distant 10% of the vote. 2/3rds of Lieberman’s voters were Republican. He could not have won without that 1/3 of Democrats who voted in essence to support the Republican backed candidate Lieberman. Had those Democrats of just voted for the only true Democrat in the race, Lamont would have won in a landslide. I hope you Democrats in CT that voted for “Don’t criticize Bush. Criticize the Democrats” Lieberman are proud of yourselves.

But there may be a silver lining. If “petitioning Democrat” Joe switches his affiliation back from (I) to (D), The extra vote may give Democrats the seat they need to regain control of the Senate for the first time since 1982!

When Newt Gigrich led his “Republican Revolution” 1994 to win 50+ seats to regain control of the House of Representatives, they already had the Senate. If Democrats were to take back control of BOTH the House AND Senate at the same time, it means a MAJOR change in the catastrophic direction the Republicans have been leading us for the past 12 years! Besides holding President Bush accountable for his disastrous policies in Iraq, there are also liklely to be hearings on his unprecedented unconstitutional power grab, the NSA domestic spying scandal, stemcell research, raising the minimum wage, and funding for alternative energy research.

More details as they arrive.
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