Top Items:
Associated Press:
GOP officials: Rumsfeld stepping down — WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, architect of an unpopular war in Iraq, intends to resign after six stormy years at the Pentagon, Republican officials said Wednesday. — Officials said Robert Gates, former head of the CIA, would replace Rumsfeld.
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CNN:
Rumsfeld quitting as defense secretary — WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush announced Wednesday that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is stepping down from his post. — "The timing is right for new leadership at the Pentagon," Bush said at the White House Wednesday afternoon.
The Allen Report:
President Bush's Opening Gambit for Surviving Divided Government — Despite his dramatically weakened political position, the President plans to stand up to Democrats and challenge them to work with him on issues he has been promoting. But the opposition now has little reason to cave.
Think Progress:
VIDEO: Bush Admits He Lied About Rumsfeld For Political Purposes » — Last week, President Bush unequivocally told a group of reporters that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney would "remain with him until the end of his presidency, extending a job guarantee …
Fox News:
DONALD RUMSFELD RESIGNING AS DEFENSE SECRETARY — WASHINGTON — Donald H. Rumsfeld is stepping down as defense secretary and former CIA Director Robert Gates will be nominated to take his place. — Rumsfeld, President Bush's sole defense secretary in six years of leadership …
Jim Young / MSNBC:
Bush announces Rumsfeld stepping down — President taps ex-CIA chief Gates to replace embattled defense secretary — After six years on the job, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will resign, President said Wednesday. — NBC VIDEO … WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld …
William Branigin / Washington Post:
Rumsfeld to Step Down as Defense Secretary — Bush Taps Former CIA Director Robert Gates as Successor — President Bush today announced he is replacing Donald H. Rumsfeld as secretary of defense, saying a "fresh perspective" is needed at the Pentagon to deal with the war in Iraq.
Discussion:
Sound Politics
Washington Post:
A Voter Rebuke For Bush, the War And the Right — 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.
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Christy Hardin Smith / Firedoglake:
No. — I ask you, considering the margins that we are looking at this morning in a whole lot of the races that the Democrats won yesterday, in both the House and the Senate, what was Rahm Emmanuel thinking saying this: … Let me get this straight, we have just taken back the House and …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, TAPPED, JustOneMinute, MaxSpeak, Macsmind, Suburban Guerrilla, The Sideshow and Sister Toldjah
Peter Wallsten / Los Angeles Times:
Bush likely to resist calls for major change — Statements during the campaign suggest there is little that House Democrats and the president can be expected to agree on. — WASHINGTON — With increasing fervor, President Bush spent the final weeks of the 2006 campaign castigating Democrats …
Joe Gandelman / The Moderate Voice:
Democratic House Win And Changed Senate Suggests GOP Lost Independents And Moderates
Democratic House Win And Changed Senate Suggests GOP Lost Independents And Moderates
Hugh Hewitt / Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog:
The Good News And The Bad — I have to assume that the Dems will get the Senate as well as the House, though Conrad Burns may be able to pull off an upset, in which case I hope the GOP in the Senate reject the silly rules they agreed to the last time the body was 50/50.
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CNN:
Dems take House, CNN projects; Senate still undecided … (CNN) — Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives for the first time since the 1994 Republican revolution, while control of the Senate hangs in the balance, CNN projects. — Democratic challengers have picked up four seats in the Senate, CNN projects.
Calvin Woodward / Associated Press:
Democrats win House; Senate now tied — WASHINGTON - Democrats won a cliffhanger race in Montana on Wednesday that brought them to the brink of control of the Senate, after Americans sick of scandal and weary of war ended the Republican majority in the House.
Belle Waring / Crooked Timber:
If It's Not Close They Can't Cheat
If It's Not Close They Can't Cheat
Discussion:
Alabama Liberation Front
John O'Neil / New York Times:
A Virginia Recount Would Not Come Soon — Virginia's election laws allow an apparent loser to request a recount if a contest's margin is less than 1 percent — and the margin in the preliminary results of the state's Senate election stood this morning at about one-third of 1 percent.
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Alex Massie / Telegraph:
Democrats 'have a little list' of investigations — The Democrats' takeover of the House of Representatives will give the party more power on Capitol Hill than it has enjoyed since 1994, including control of powerful committees, responsibilities for the federal budget and the opportunity to investigate the White House.
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Bull Moose:
KOSenfreude* — The Moose gloats and kvells. — There is great joy in Mooseland. The nutroots have struck out. Joe Lieberman has prevailed. The vital center is victorious! — Read and weep, dear nutroots, … Yes, there is justice. Joe took a brave stand by putting country before party.
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Jennifer Medina / New York Times:
'Liberated' Lieberman Likely to Be Courted by Both Sides
'Liberated' Lieberman Likely to Be Courted by Both Sides
Discussion:
Reason Magazine
Monica Davey / New York Times:
South Dakotans Reject Sweeping Abortion Ban — Voters in South Dakota yesterday rejected the most sweeping abortion ban proposed in the nation in more than a decade, turning back an effort by the ban's authors to set up a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 United States Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal.
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Ibrahim Barzak / Associated Press:
Hamas urges attacks on U.S. targets — GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hamas' military wing called Wednesday on Muslims around the world to attack American targets following reports that an Israeli tank strike killed 18 people in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun.
Liz Sidoti / Associated Press:
Rogers, Chandler re-elected in Kentucky — WASHINGTON - Democrats pursued their best chance in a dozen years to take control of the House from scandal-scarred Republicans on Tuesday in a midterm election marked by voter frustration with the Iraq war and President Bush.
Mike Allen / Time:
Hastert Will Step Down — Exclusive: The Speaker bows out of the Republican leadership after Democrats take his power. The contest to succeed him will help define the Republican Party in a new era of divided government. — House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) will not seek reelection …
Discussion:
Wonkette