That’s it. The Dems will take the Senate. They now have a one seat margin. Long live House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Long live Majority Leader Harry Reid. Joe Biden takes the helm at Foreign Relations. Carl Levin will Chair Armed Services. Big changes.
“Brokeback Mountain” may not have won the Oscar for last year’s best movie, but it may have softened up some of the tough-guy crowd in Montana. It’s official. Jon Tester has de-listed Conrad Burns from the Senate roster as of January 2007.
Republican leaders are reporting that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is stepping down. Former CIA Chief and Texas A&M President Robert Gates is taking Rumsfeld’s chair. I hear the troops are overjoyed.
The White House has just released the roster of people being recognized for contributions to the arts and humanities. George and Laura Bush plan to award each his National Humanities Medal tomorrow (Thursday) morning. Bottoming out the list are two Bush ring-kissers and great buddies of Ahmad Chalabi: Bernard Lewis and Fouad Ajami.
Washington Post Radio at 9:40 a.m. And thanks to CNN, BBC, and WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show for an amazing evening last night as I bopped between networks.
Most of you you know what has happened, but many of TWN‘s international readers want a quick and compact picture. First of all, yesterday afternoon, TWN predicted the following: U.S. House of Representatives 201 Republicans 234 Democrats U.S. Senate 51 Republicans 47 Democrats 2 Independents (caucus with Dems) What the polls show today is: U.S….
What a night! 99% of precincts reporting and James Webb now leads George Allen by about 2,500 votes. Mixed feelings on this one. A while back I hoped that George Allen would hold himself together long enough politically to challenge John McCain for the Republican presidential nomination (and win).
In Virginia, 96% of the votes are in — and Allen has a smidgeon of a lead, just 8000 votes, over Jim Webb. Recount time. In Maryland, the Washington Post is now pulling off its projection that Ben Cardin will prevail over Michael Steele. More later.
11:07 p.m. That’s it. The investigations and testimony — under oath — will begin. Presidential campaigns start tomorrow. Kirsten Gillibrand in New York-20 and Ron Klein in Florida-22 put the Dems over the magic half-way point in the House. Nancy Pelosi now reigns. Big, very big.
It’s 11 p.m. here at CNN’s blogfest. Great people here — most of whom I know via email but very different to actually meet the pajama crowd in person. At this DCCC site, reports are the Dems are now just two seats away from taking over the House of Representatives. Exciting.
