Over at Belgravia Dispatch, Greg has written a piece on what Rumsfeld’s departure might mean for the next two years. Highly recommend reading the whole thing. He’s optimistic, which makes me a feel a little better. Of course, he also predicted, based on rumblings he was hearing inside the Beltway, that there would be a course change after 2004 (he voted for Bush, silly man). That obviously didn’t happen.

From the piece:

Regardless, what we saw yesterday was American democracy at its finest. We saw the public mount a critically needed intervention, because without it a President well beyond his depth would have likely continued to cast his lot with discredited cocksure ideologues and/or Jacksonian nationalists like Rumsfeld. In Gates, we have an anti-ideologue and a realist. In his role with the Baker-Hamilton commission (a welcome dose of bipartisan sanity in an increasingly moronic Washington, media and blogosphere), he will have had access and been influenced by distinguished peers grappling with what to do next in Iraq in a climate characterized by sober appraisal of the national interest, rather than the agenda-driven hysterical harrumphing afoot in all the usual quarters.

There is a final irony worth noting too, perhaps. With pragmatists and Bush 41 alum like Baker and Gates rising to the fore, the son who marched headstrong into Iraq (like the father wouldn’t after liberating Kuwait) is now being forced to lick his wounds and crawl back towards the protective umbrella of his father’s former advisors. Neo-con exuberances, faith-based adventurism, and utopian aspiration passing for persuasive policy are now necessarily going to be relegated to the back-seat, in favor of essentially needed sobriety and realism (Gates is far closer to Scowcroft, say, than ribald fraudster types spouting off endless inanities at NRO and the Standard). While it is true Cheney is still around (one of his father’s advisors too, but a changed man now no longer respected by his former colleagues in Bush 41), he is a much diminished figure who, to boot, just lost his main ally today.

It is, by far, the most interesting development of this week, that Rumsfeld got the boot after the election night “thumping.” Of course, the move, like everything else this administration does, was timed to shift media attention away from election night losses.

So let’s talk about election night for a bit. Atrios points to an article in the Providence Journal about Chafee’s reaction to his loss. I’ll excerpt the same portion Atrios did:

In his first interview since losing the Republican U.S. Senate seat that has been in his family for three decades, Lincoln D. Chafee yesterday said a lot of people had been coming up to him “and saying, ‘We’re sorry you lost, but glad the Congress switched’ ” from GOP to Democratic Party control.

Asked if deep down, despite his personal disappointment about the outcome of Tuesday’s election, he felt the same way, Chafee looked into the TV cameras and said: “To be honest, yes.”

“When you enact a divisive agenda, don’t talk to the other side, I don’t think that’s good for the country,” Chafee said. At least now, “I think the president is going to have to talk to the Democrats. I think that is going to be good for America.”

If you haven’t been following the race in Rhode Island (and who hasn’t, come on), read the full article. Chafee’s situation was similar to Joe Lieberman’s, in that he was challenged in his party primary. Of course, he was actually attacked on purely ideological grounds for not being “conservative” enough. Lieberman was challenged because he’s a stubborn, arrogant Senator who lost touch with the bulk of his party constituents back home.

That’s what was so interesting about this election cycle. While Ned Lamont lost, his campaign was one of the first big national stories that showed that talking about the war and talking about leaving was the right thing to do. The Democrats fielded strong candidates, among them war veterans (the Fighting Dems), and as the campaign season reached the home stretch, pounded the war message home. The Foley scandal pretty much pushed the rest of the undecideds the Democrats got.

The Lamont campaign showed people we could talk about the war and win elections, and while Lamont didn’t win, his campaign pushed that conversation forward. I wish I had been able to do more this summer to help, but with the wedding and football season back to back, it wasn’t meant to be.

I’m happy he ran, and happy to have supported him. He was a good candidate. A local editorial lays out why his candidacy was important, and this letter from a supports seems to summarize my view.

Now that the Democrats have taken control of the House and Senate, their leadership needs to pause before celebration.

I won’t argue that this change of power isn’t a good thing; it is a fantastic thing. Bush, and his attack on civil rights, will at least get more than a cursory evaluation. The shady dealings of the executive branch will finally see a spot light and maybe some of the secrecy of the administration will be lifted. The blindfolded driver of the Iraq war has quit and maybe someone will be able to steer the car out of the ditch. There in lies the rub.

I think it is quite clear this election was a referendum on the Iraq war. The voters spoke…Iraq is very unpopular. The problem is that the Democrats are now in control of the Iraq conflict…except they aren’t. Bush is still Commander in Chief and he believes in the war. Iraq is a mess of sectarian violence with multiple sides and multiple agendas. We can’t pull out without the whole thing erupting and we can’t stay without a huge cost in money and lives. The Dems have two years to “fix” Iraq. I’m not sure it is possible at this point, and certainly not without committing MORE troops to the conflict.

Domestically, Americans still have a fear of terrorism. The Bush administration has used the threat of terrorist attacks in the US as a powerful motivator to convince Americans to back the war. Even mentions of scaling back the War in Iraq yield accusations of being “soft on terror.” I fear that one domestic terrorism incident, something that is all too likely to occur eventually, regardless of Iraq war, will become a backlash against the Democrats in power, resulting in huge losses in Congress and worse, huges losses of civil liberties.

Finally with all the calls of “bipartisanship” I’ve heard over the last few days, I can’t help but laugh. Days ago there were accusations and name calling from both sides. Today, everyone just wants to get along. The problem for the Democratic leadership is that most of the Republicans who were replaced were moderate, left leaning Republicans. Some who replaced them were more conservative, right leaning Democrats…the so called “Blue Dog” Democrats. While the leadership may have the majority by the numbers, they may find that they don’t have the votes when push comes to shove. Not to mention that President Bush still has the golden power of veto.

These are interesting times and I hope, for the sake of our civil liberties, the Democrats are able to fulfill their agenda. I also hope that for the sake of bipartisanship and keeping a hold of Congress, they don’t fall in line behind President’s simple minded view of security and the world.

The Democrats need to take action. I just fear that there is no action that won’t spell disaster. I also hope that I’m just being pessimistic. Fortunately, world events change moment by moment. Tomorrow will likely bring some new event or issue that will be the hot button topic for the next election.

It’s done. The bar is set pretty high right now for the Democrats, and they’re going to have to figure out how to pass things without getting everything vetoed. Should be a fun ride.

AP is reporting that Webb has won Virginia and that Allen may concede tomorrow. No recount. Democratic majority in both houses. Oh Boy.

Right now it’s only AP and Reuters with the story, but there were no issues with the canvass so far, and Allen has said some things that might indivate a concession soon.

This puts the Senate in the 51-49 state that I mentioned in my Lieberman predictions. Will he or won’t he? Or will he get tapped for an Administration position which would allow Jodi Rell (R) to appoint the successor? Questions, questions, questions.

CNN, MSNBC, and NPR have all called the CT Senate race for Joe Lieberman, and while I’m extraordinarily disappointed, I’m not surprised. Polls as late as this weekend were showing a large lead for Lieberman and, as I found out today, many people come to the polls today knowing how they were going to vote.

Even with that disappointment, I’ve really enjoyed tonight. I’m writing this before the results are in for the Senate and House, so we’ll see how I feel in the morning. So far, though, it’s been a decent night.

I volunteered for the Ned Lamont campaign outside a local polling station. I was there to hold a sign and greet voters as they came in. I ended up being the volunteer that called in the final vote totals to the campaign so I stayed to watch them do the final counts for the precinct. It was really cool to see them go through the steps, making sure that two people read the counts from the machines, that the numbers were read aloud loudly and clearly to everyone in the room, and that the serial numbers and the records were kept correctly. Little actions and the hard work of a number of dedicated individuals. That’s what makes all of this work, and it was great being there during the counts.

Calling in the vote to the campaign was a bit of an adventure. The campaign was using phone system to tally the votes and it was clearly overwhelmed tonight. It took several tries to get the numbers in without the system hanging up on me. They used text messages as a backup which seemed to work.

I’m happy seeing people coming out to vote, especially those that are there super-early when Heidi and I go and those people who were running up at 7:50PM tonight doing what they could to get in. People take this seriously, and it’s awesome to see people voting.

So, even with the disappointment here with Lamont, I’m pretty happy tonight. I’m ecstatic that Nancy Johnson lost after seeing some of the horrible, untrue ads she was running here. While many of the local campaigns were run in a decent way, her campaign was my poster child for dishonesty. It looks, right now, like Shays and Simmons will hold on to their seats and that’s a disappointment.

Our local races have been going well. Beth Bye looks to have a lead right now with Avon and West Hartford completely counted (not sure about Farmington). I met the husband of her opponent today who seems like a nice guy. They were hopeful at 8PM. It will be interesting to see the precinct breakdowns for that one. The other Democrats were a lock, more or less, so no surprises there.

Nationally, things look decent right now. I can’t believe that Senator Allen is still neck and neck with Webb in Virginia. It seems like Virginia might be the last place that a racist could run and win a Senate race. I’m happy about the ones you’d expect, Casey Jr, Menendez, and Brown. I’ll have more to say later tonight.

So, six more years of stubborn Joe Lieberman. I still stand by the rest of my predictions, so we’ll see how this works out.