Anybody Seen the Baby?

MSNBC has just projected that the Democrats will have a significant majority in the new U.S. House of Representatives. The early projection has the Democrats with 231 seats to the Republican's 204 seats. Nancy Pelosi will become the first woman to assume the position of the Speaker of the House.

My congratulations to the Democrats and to Speaker Pelosi. It looks like my prediction of two weeks ago was almost exactly correct.

It's still too early to predict the U.S. Senate, but it's clearly not the landslide we see in the House. Still, by the time the evening is over, I may still be correct in my Senate prediction, made back on October 23rd.

I have great faith in the American public and the wisdom of their votes. This is very different from "bowing to the will of the people." Of course, we do that. The voters have spoken and they have made their decision.

No, what I'm speaking of is much deeper. I have great faith in the wisdom of this vote. While we can all get into a heated argument with one person or another here in the blogosphere, the WISDOM comes from the combined votes of the millions. American's generally get it right.

Now we need to see if the Democrats can rise to the occasion. Will we have endless confrontations? Or will we have a meaningful effort to solve the problems that America has so clearly identified tonight?

Some legislation is simple. The minimum wage will be raised. Bush will sign it.

Some legislation is meaningless and stupid. We will see the house pass a stem cell research bill. It's unnecessary and useless and designed only to illicit the expected Presidential veto. Such a bill is only designed to inflame the public.

But will we see endless subpoenas and investigations into the events leading up to the war in Iraq? Will we spend the next two years looking backward?

Let's hope not. We need to work today to solve this problem, not wait for another two years of death and destruction.

Will we see the building of a case for impeachment, in spite of Nancy Pelosi's pledge not to allow this to happen?

Frightening is the rumored move by Pelosi to remove Jane Harmon from her deserved Chairmanship of the Intelligence Committee and replace her with, of all people, Alcee Hastings. In 1989, Hastings was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives for corruption and perjury. So much for Pelosi's claim she will "drain the swamp."

Tom Brokaw said tonight on MSNBC that he believes America DID NOT VOTE for subpoenas. Let's hope that Tom Brokaw's wisdom reaches Nancy Pelosi's ears.

It is not time for a witch hunt. It's time for solutions and ideas on Iraq. The public now will demand the "fresh ideas" the Democrats promised, but never articulated.

Chris Matthews did an amazing about face tonight, attacking the newly elected Democrats for failing to make any proposals, meaningful or otherwise, on Iraq. How quickly the press can turn on you.

"The King is dead. Now let's kill the new King" is the mantra of the press and pundits.

Will the Democrats take the steps necessary to maintain this superb economy? Will they, as promised, protect the tax breaks Bush really did give to the middle and working class?

You can't have this type of wholesale change without risking "throwing out the baby with the bath water." Let's hope the Democrats keep their eye on the baby.

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On a personal note, the courageous Erik Fleming and Yvonne Brown went down in flames here in Mississippi.

Erik, a Democrat, lost to Republican legend Trent Lott, but did manage to gather almost 35% of the vote without money, without any support from the Democrat Party and without even the passing interest from any media.

Yvonne, a Republican, also managed to gather 35% of the vote in a district gerrymandered into overwhelming Democrat superiority. This is partially a "tribute" to the incredible arrogance and ignorance of the incumbent, Democrat Bennie Thompson, who shouldn't have the support of anybody.

The Republican's should have given Yvonne money and support, but they didn't. To his credit, Trent Lott did give financial aid and moral support to Yvonne.

Erik and Yvonne are victims of a political system designed to protect the incumbents.

So I give my congratulations and thanks to Democrat Erik Fleming and Republican Yvonne Brown for their efforts to make democracy a reality. They are my heroes, even in defeat.

TECHNORATI TAGS: YVONNE BROWN REPUBLICAN ERIK FLEMING DEMOCRAT GERRYMANDERING BENNIE THOMPSON TRENT LOTT CHRIS MATTHEWS NANCY PELOSI ALCEE HASTINGS

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