WASHINGTON (AFP)
Citizen - Online
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Democrats won control of the Senate, completing a sweep of Congress and handing President George W. Bush a stunning defeat that altered the political landscape for years to come.
A Democratic victory in a tight Senate race in Virginia capped a dramatic day of developments that earlier saw Bush dump his much-criticized Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who became the first casualty of an election seen as a referendum on the Iraq war.
US television projected that Democrat Jim Webb ousted Republican incumbent George Allen in the last outstanding Senate race of Tuesday's election, handing Democrats control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 12 years.
The win gave Democrats a 51-49 majority in the upper chamber and came after the party won the House of Representatives by a wide margin Tuesday.
After the Republican drubbing in the House, Bush acknowledged that voters were frustrated over the Iraq war and announced the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
His decision to dispense with a lynchpin of his administration who had become the face of a military victory gone sour suggested a major change of strategy in Iraq could be in the works.
"I recognize that many Americans voted last night to register their displeasure with the lack of progress being made there," Bush said at a news conference, naming former CIA director Robert Gates as new Pentagon chief.
Days after saying Rumsfeld would be a fixture for the final two years of his presidency, Bush ended the storied political career of a man with an intimate acquaintance of Washington's corridors of power.
The president said he wanted "a fresh perspective" on how to secure victory, and signalled he was ready to work with Democrats on a new strategy for a country where 2,800 US troops have died along with tens of thousands of civilians.
News of Webb's victory came after US networks said Democrat Jon Tester beat incumbent Republican Conrad Burns in Montana by fewer than 5,000 votes to pick up a fourth seat for the party in the 100-member body.
But Burns refused Wednesday to concede defeat, saying some votes still remained to be counted. In Virginia, Allen's campaign had yet to comment on Webb's reported victory.
Earlier, Bush implicitly acknowledged the view pressed by his critics that the election was a referendum on his leadership.
"As the head of the Republican Party, I share a large part of the responsibility ... I look at it race by race, it was close. The cumulative effect, however, was not too close. It was a thumping."
Already flexing their new power, Democrats welcomed Rumsfeld's departure.
"For the first time it looks like the president is listening," said Senator Chuck Schumer, architect of the party's surge in the Senate.
Earlier, Nancy Pelosi, set to become the first female speaker of the House, had called for Rumsfeld to go.
Rumsfeld's departure capped a storied career of a political bruiser who served twice as Pentagon chief, and was White House chief of staff to president Gerald Ford, after starting out as a navy pilot.
But he will likely go down in history as the man who led US troops into war in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks in 2001 and a subsequent quagmire in Iraq, from which there seem few acceptable exit strategies.
His successor, former US spy chief Gates, 63, has served six US presidents, including the current US leader's father George H. Bush.
Significantly, he is a member of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group under former Republican secretary of state James Baker tasked with examining new US approaches on Iraq which is due to report to Bush within a few months.
The Republican defeat means Bush is already certain to face new scrutiny over Iraq and a difficult two final years in the White House.
The opposition party beat most predictions by picking up nearly 30 seats to take control of the 435-member House for the first time since 1994.
Republican House Majority Leader John Boehner said his party was "deeply disappointed" but predicted it would reclaim a majority in 2008.
Voters piled on anger over the course of the war in Iraq and a heap of corruption and scandals which have tainted the Republicans in the past two years, exit polls suggested.
They also expressed concern over skyrocketing health care costs, the economy, illegal immigration and "values" issues such as stem-cell research, gay marriage and abortion.
Republican incumbents crashed to defeat in Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Texas.
The Democrats also won six governors' seats to take the majority of the 50 statehouses for the first time in 12 years. Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, bucked the trend and was re-elected in California, crushing Democratic rival Phil Angelides.
Democrat Keith Ellison, from Minnesota, became the first Muslim elected to Congress, and Hillary Clinton easily beat her Republican rival to claim a second Senate term, further spurring expectations of a 2008 presidential run.
In other Senate races, Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill toppled Republican incumbent Senator Jim Talent in Missouri, and Democrat Bob Casey Jr. ousted conservative Senator Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania.
Democrat Sherrod Brown defeated Republican Senator Mike DeWine in Ohio, and Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse beat Republican incumbent Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island.
© 2006 AFP