Way to go, America! Things are looking up, after all. Nicely done. Carry on.

for America, the founding fathers, the constitution and

the world.

Over the top?

I don't think so.

"In a single election, all the Republican predictions of a generation of hegemony had been swept away."

Herr Schickelgruber's Thousand-Year Reich also lasted only twelve years. Coincidence?

She has 5 kids, for chrisakes! I hope three of them are adopted.

...that Democrats don't get the idea that these next two years are all about building up their own run for the White House. The American people just handed the Dems the entire Congress in one of the most incredible elections ever. Let's hope they don't waste is worrying, as Mr. Foreign-Beer-In-Hand, about what that means for '08. Let's worry about what '06 means for '06, shall we?

What on earth are you thinking, mintosh? Do you really think that only right-wingers have large families?

Thank goodness SOME of us liberals have lots of children.

I think it's bizarre that the article even mentioned it. What exactly was the point? How many children do each of the male winners have, hmm?

Sheesh!

As my friend Gene says, Liberals, Progressives, and Radicals need to have more kids, just in case it isn't all "nurture."

I am relieved that the Democrats won the majority in the House, but that doesn't yet make a position of strength in Washington. Democrats are still not in charge of the Senate, and the Supreme Court is perilously close to a conservative majority. AND, Bush is still in the White House. The Republicans are cornered dogs now. I'm sure that dirty tricks are just going to get dirtier.

The best news is that we CAN win, that corruption hasn't overcome the voting process - yet. There are a number of initiatives that I'd still like to see advanced - requiring paper trail voting and non-partisan election supervision, creating a national holiday for election days and maybe even mandatory voting like they have in Australia. Those measures would shift the balance of power in this country, proving that the rich-white-man dominance of politics is manufactured, not mandated.

A letter writer, responding to an earlier story, brought up the comparison to Mexico's political system - one-party rule, rampant corruption at all levels, a floundering economy and a sharp divide between rich and poor. We are headed for that nightmare still, unless the Democrats see that they DO have a mission, a platform, a noble cause to bring to the people, and then we have to get busy spreading the word.

And by the way, would some of you liberals PLEASE start running for office? State Democratic Party officials, please take note: There were 8 Republican incumbents on my ballot in the state House and Senate, running UNOPPOSED, as well as county commissioners and state utilities boards! We have to fill every governmental body before we can pat ourselves on the back for a job well done.

"The architects of Democratic victory, Rep. Rahm Emanuel and Sen. Chuck Schumer".

Okay, credit where credit is due, Howard Dean's 50 state strategy had far more to do with this election than anything Rahm or Chuck did. Rahm fought Dean tooth and nail for that DNC booty, and Chuck decided to snub Lamont after he won the CT primary.

This was widely a team effort with very little top-down leadership, but that team effort couldn't have happened without the 50 state strategy, so if you need to crown someone the architect of this victory, it sure as hell wasn't Rahm & Chuck.

What’s with the hypocrisy of pointing out the imported beer that disappears when the flag tie is waved, then raising a U2 song to anthem status. Last I checked U2 was a foreign band, imported from Ireland if I’m not mistaken.

Scherer’s hypocrisy could slip into irony if the imported beer was a Guinness.

but one wonders in which direction. This election was a repudiation of the Reps who have behaved as responsibly as unsupervised 4-year-olds the last several years. The Dems wisely got out of the way and let the Reps commit political suicide. But, unlike the Rep's 1994 Contract, the Dems have little or nothing to offer of substance. It'll be good to have some control over Bush and Cheney, but don't look for big things from this crowd. Rahm Emanuel will claim vindication for DLC-style triangular politics, but the truth is that, had it not been for Reps' extraordinarily generous gifts to Dems, this would have been just another election year. Dems can't expect this kind of Republican largesse every year.

One other thought: it occurs to me that the unbridled Republican shenanigans of the past few years were a predictable outcome of the gerrymandering that supposedly assured Republican domination for years to come. Did that give them a false sense that they couldn't lose which led to their profligate behavior which in turn led to their losing? An interesting question to ponder, I think.

Now as of November 8, 2006, I as an American citizen should be allowed to marry an "illegal immigrant" with three chickens, related to (Osama bin Laden,ie;His Mama been Layin')reguardless of his criminal status from Cock-A-Roatchaville, mexico. I will also be looking forward to using those chickens to lay some eggs to scramble for breakfast or to use them for a scientific experiment, or is that a human embryo. Lest we forget,the economy is at its height of all time , Can we afford to f--- with it???

Forget Karl Rove, there's a new evil electoral genius in town and his name is Rahm Emanuel. Pure evil. What a remarkable, brilliant, cold-blooded Cook County contract killer he is. Dick Durbin is downright squishy next to the Rahminator. How does a guy raise cash like that without getting as filthy as Delay? Maybe he does get that filthy.

Can anybody fill me in on the details as to how Emanuel made his bazillions in just a couple of years between the Clinton White House and his first term Congressional run? I mean, a degree in modern dance theory doesn't usually pay that well for your first job in the private sector.

We Republicans have got to get ourselves one of these guys.

I think this House could be very well-run. Sure, Conyers is certifiably nuts, and Rangel will say something stupid about once every 46 minutes. Alcee Hastings is likely to get himself indicted at least once, maybe twice, more in the next two years. Henry Waxman will turn the stomachs of 4 out of every 5 Americans between Pittsburgh and Salt Lake City. Barney Frank will just be Barney Frank, without even trying. But that's just the expectations game. Those guys won't let us down. The real question is whether guys like Heath Shuler are going to govern like House Republicans should have been governing for the last 20 months. And that won't happen, I don't think, because Pelosi and Emanuel will quietly cut their throats the first weekend they are in Washington if they do.