WaPo: "A Voter Rebuke For Bush, The War And The Right"

[Hissyspit]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/07/AR2006110701697.html

Analysis
A Voter Rebuke For Bush, the War And the Right

By Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, November 8, 2006; Page A01

The political pendulum in American politics swung away from the right yesterday, putting an end to the 12-year Republican Revolution on Capitol Hill and delivering a sharp rebuke of President Bush and the Iraq war.

The GOP reign in the House that began with Newt Gingrich in a burst of vision and confrontation in 1994 came crashing down amid voter disaffection with congressional corruption. The collapse of one-party rule in Washington will transform Bush's final two years in office and challenge Democrats to make the leap from angry opposition to partners in power.

How far the balance shifts to the left remains to be seen. The passion of the antiwar movement helped propel party activists in this election year, and the House leadership under the likely new speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), hails from the party's liberal wing. But the Democrats' victory was built on the back of more centrist candidates seizing Republican-leaning districts, and Pelosi has emphasized that she will try to lead without becoming the ideological mirror of Gingrich.

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Yet the Democrats' return to power in at least one house means Bush will almost certainly face powerful pressure to reassess his Iraq policy -- not just from Democrats but from within his own party. Even many Republicans hanging on last night emerged from a bruising election restive and looking for a fresh direction.

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Overall, 59 percent of voters surveyed in a news media consortium series of exit polls yesterday expressed dissatisfaction or anger with the Bush administration; 37 percent said they cast their vote to express opposition to Bush, compared with 23 percent who were voting to support him. Fifty-six percent of voters said they support withdrawing some or all U.S. troops from Iraq, which will increase the pressure on Washington to switch gears at a minimum and probably embolden Democrats pushing for a pullout.

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