Politics: It was a pretty big wave

It seems once a decade there is a shift in the political landscape.

It seems to be an inevitable reality of political life that the party in power gets complacent and the voters toss them out. So even though I'm a GOP supporter, I'm not all that surprised or worried.

I'm old enough to remember the Reagan victory in 1980 which swept in a GOP Senate. I was not yet old enough to vote that year but I followed the coverage eagerly.

I remember 1994 when the GOP took both House and Senate.

Well, last night, 2006, the Democrats regained the House and Senate.

Technically, the Senate will be 49D, 49R and 2I. I am assuming that Allen will not contest the election in Virginia and that seat is indeed lost to the GOP.

The 2 independents could make things interesting. The current assumption (a fair one) is that both Sanders (VT) and Lieberman (CT) will join the Democrats in procedural matters of constituting the leadership of the Senate. I suspect Sanders who I heard is a socialist will probably stick with the Democrats under most conceivable circumstances. However, I do have to wonder though if Lieberman is telling the Democrat leadership quietly, don't get crazy or I'll do a Jeffords on you guys and throw the Senate back to the Republicans. I don't think Lieberman would do so out of revenge for the fact that the party threw him under the bus for Lamont as he doesn't seem like that kind of person. However, if, on substance, he sees the party going looney left on national security issues, I think he would jump ship for the sake of the country.

The key thing is how the Democrats use their newly obtained power. Will the next two years be productive ones or years that the locusts of political payback chew up?

Meanwhile, Rummy has announced his resignation.

My guts tell me that that resignation letter was written weeks if not months ago. The Bush family is famous for its loyalty and W would not sack the SecDef before the election as it would look too much like tossing the controversial figure overboard to save his own political fortunes.

UPDATE: Some GOP supporters are saying Bush should have accepted and announced the resignation weeks/months ago and that maybe that might have helped a few of the close races in Congress.

We shall see what else happens in the next few weeks in response to the shaken up political etch-a-sketch.