Now that the Democrats have 51 seats in the Senate and the Republicans 49 there is a small bot effective shift in the balance of power in the political establishment . Beltway politics will be a wee bit different as a result. However the Rpublicans have won a convincing majority in the House of Representatives. If the USA had a parliamntary form of government then the government of the day would have to resign. Bush is trying to brazen his way out of a political crisis by sacrifcing the Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeldt. It is clear from the results that the Iraq war has been the single most important factor in pushiong the political fortunes of the Democrats.
Right from the start I have been saying that the Iraq War is not in American interests. I received a torrent of the most spiteful invective for suggesting as much. Now it appears that the American public too is tired of the badaly faught and badly flawed war. It is hoped that the Democrats will use their majority to throttle the war effort of the US administration. At the very least they must insist on a timeline for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. It is too early to predict whether Robert Gates the new Secretary of Defence will be more effective in the procecution of the war.
The defeat of all prominet Republican supporters of the US President underscores the political isolation of George W Bush. Is there a way out of the political muddle. The first order of business would be to seek the a way to end the war. This will, of course, involve all regional powers and USA will have to deal with Iran which holds the key to stability in the Shiaa section of Iraq.
Violence in Iraq will not come down until a political solution is found. The al Maliki regime does not enjoy the confidence of the Iraqi people and the threatened excecution of Saddam Hussein will only send the wrong signals. It is hoped that the new political forces in the USA will show more maturity that the Bush Administration.