Wednesday, November 08, 2006

The Day After

Okay, we have now had a few hours to try and absorb what happened in the elections yesterday and you are getting a lot of opinions as to the meaning. I said the Democrats had to win 30 House seats to be average and they won 29 so far and will get thirty in time. They now control the House.

I also said they had to win six Senate seats to win. They have won five seats and may win six seats. If they get the last seat in Virginia they will also control the Senate, but they will not be the majority in the Senate. What? Truth is there are 49 Republicans and 48 Democrats right now, with Virginia to be determined. If the Democrats win it they will have 49 Senators. They need 51 to control the Senate.

There are two independents in the Senate, and one, Lieberman, said he would support the Democrats which makes sense since he was their national candidate a couple of years ago. His vote gives the Democrats 50 votes but that would not give them control since the Vice President breaks ties in the Senate. So who is the second independent who could give the Democrats the deciding votes in the Senate, an avowed socialist from Vermont. Can you really be too confident when a card-carrying socialist will determine if your agenda can succeed? What price will you pay for his support? We shall see.

Still to be determined is how many of the new House members are moderates and conservatives versus the traditional liberal views of many mainstream Democrats. Will the diverse and center to right shifting Demoratic party be able to mange the diversity? Whether the Democrats control one or both Houses they still will not have enough votes to override a Presidential veto which requires a two-thirds majority. Ho hum.

On the other hand, the House victory makes Nancy Pelosi House Speaker, a former Maryland native with a rich family history in state politics. History was made because she is the first woman to be Speaker of the House, second in line for the presidency behind the vice-president, and with Condi Rice there are now two women in the top four in line for the presidency.

I wish women would take control of the House, Senate and White House since men have had the last 230 years to fix things and look at the mess we have today. It’s about time someone who wears a dress runs the House, well I mean someone who is supposed to wear a dress since a few of those male politicians over the years had pretty strange behavior. There may be some truth to the Biblical story about Adam and Eve. God made man, then took a rib and made women. Some people think God didn’t need the rib but just took time to think it over, then made woman to fix all the things that were wrong with man.

There are 70 women in the House now, and 16 in the Senate, and two more possible in contested elections, the most in history but we need 218 in the House and 51 in the Senate to take control in this gender bender campaign. We have our work cut out for us to get there but a few more election performances by the men like this year and some corruption house cleaning and we could get there sooner than you think.

Other election news - the stock market went up, the rest of the world breathed a sigh of relief, there will be a spike in unemployment of Republican staff members, Homeland security might improve since Nancy said she will push for implementation of all 911 Commission recommendations, something the palace guard in the White House resisted, Rumsfeld is gone, and the Middle East just became a lot more unstable with the likely withdraw of USA troops.

Here in Maryland political pundits attribute O’Malley’s victory to better hair and across the river in Virginia, well, Marylanders are not surprised Virginians still can’t figure out who won their Senate race, look at the mess they made of the northern Virginia development that stops traffic cold when people cross the river from Maryland into Virginia.

Let’s hope things do change for the better.

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