America's voice is heard

America is delivering it's verdict on Bush and the war in Iraq as we speak and early indications are that the results will be damning.

Already the Republicans have conceded that they have lost control of the House of Representatives which they have maintained for the past twelve years. The Democrats need three seats to take control of the Senate although that, at the moment, looks like a much tougher call, although they have already made some Senate gains.

However, what is exposed as a myth, even at this early stage, is the image of Karl Rove as the political wizard who delivers miracles. He had promised that the Republicans would retain both houses, a promise that was so audacious that it set off some worry in the Democratic camp; but it was a promise that proved to be simply impossible to deliver upon.

The methods used to try and deliver led to what some are calling the dirtiest election campaign yet with some voters threatened with arrest of they attempted to vote:

Early yesterday morning, Tim Daly of Clarendon, Virginia found a message on his voice mail threatening him with arrest if he showed up to vote.

"This is the Virginia Elections Commission," the message said. " We've determined you are registered in New York to vote. Therefore, you will not be allowed to cast your vote... If you do show up, you will be charged criminally."

Mr Daly, who has lived and voted in Virginia since 1998, quickly figured out this was not the Virginia Elections Commission at all, but a rogue operation intended to intimidate Democratic Party sympathisers like himself.

In several states, Democrats - especially African Americans - complained that they had been called and told the location of their precinct had changed, when it hadn't.

These sleaze-ball tactics have come to typify Republican electioneering, where - under Rove's tutelage - victory for victory's sake has become more important than any principles or policy.

There seemed no limits to the depths that the Republicans would stoop to:

In Maryland, a sample ballot paper was distributed around polling stations which described the Republican candidates for governor and Senate as Democrats. The guides were being handed out by homeless people bused in from neighbouring Pennsylvania. The Post reports that one homeless person recruited at a shelter in Philadelphia was greeted by the Republican governor of Maryland's wife, and given t-shirts.

The Republicans in Maryland have already admitted distributed a "Democrats official voter guide" purporting to carry an endorsement from former National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) president Kweisi Mfume and two other senior black Maryland politicians for the Republican candidates Bob Ehrlich and Michael Steele.

The Republicans says the fliers are above board and not deceptive - arguing that they are identified by text saying they have been produced by the Ehrlich and Steele campaigns. The Democrats have reacted angrily. "In terms of the dirty tricks, well, we found one thing in Maryland where the polling places had literature that said that [Kweisi] Mfume endorses both the Republican candidates for governor and senator. That is totally false. We want to make it clear it's false," said New York Democratic senator Charles Schumer.

Bush sounded initially optimistic, perhaps confident on the basis that he and Rove have won every election they have ever fought together:

"Do your duty, cast your ballot and let your voice be heard," President Bush exhorted for his part, after voting at dawn in Crawford, Texas, near his ranch. Immediately afterwards Mr Bush flew back to Washington, to await the results of an election that was largely a referendum on his presidency.

Well, the US did as he requested and the voices damning his policies are being heard loud and clear throughout the States.

Tony Snow attempted to put a positive spin on what was actually a damning defeat:

White House spokesman Tony Snow said the outcome of the elections, in which Democrats were projected to win control of the House and pick up several Senate seats, was "not what we would've hoped." "But it also gets us to a point: Democrats have spent a lot of time complaining about what the president has done. This is an opportunity for them to kind of stand up," Snow said.

The Democrats sounded very confident of meeting Snow's challenge:

Amid scenes of jubilation at the Democratic party headquarters in Washington, Nancy Pelosi, who is set to become the first female House Speaker in US history, threw down the gauntlet to the president on Iraq. "Tonight is a great victory for the American people," Ms Pelosi said.

"We cannot continue down this catastrophic path. So we say to the president: 'Mr President, we need a new direction in Iraq. Let us work together to find a solution to the war in Iraq.'"

The question now is how Bush, a President used to controlling both houses and who, up until now, has had his power challenged only by Republicans who always eventually cave in and give him exactly what he wants, will react to a changed political landscape. Now Bush will have to learn compromise if he wants to get any of his bills through. The days of "The Decider" are most certainly over and, unless Bush can learn to govern in an entirely new way, he will spend his last two years as a lame duck President.

On a personal note, I hope the Democrats use their new found power to hold this administration to account.

I know that Pelosi has promised not to attempt to impeach Bush, but that is still no reason for the Democrats not to immediately start hearings and attempt to lift the veil of almost maniacal secrecy that has surrounded this White House.

Let's start to shine some light into their darkest corners.

UPDATE:

From the wonderful Billmon:

Update 2:45 AM ET: Since it was Bush who said that if the Democrats win America loses, I suppose the only remaining question is whether he'll fly to Pakistan to offer our surrender to Bin Ladin or invite Bin Ladin to come to Washington.

Maybe they could do it on the deck of the battleship Missouri -- just for old time's sake.

tag: Republican, mid-term, elections, November, United, States, Bush, Democrat, election, victory