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.
Discussion:
Daniel W. Drezner, QandO, The Reaction, Scared Monkeys, Outside The Beltway, Gawker, Stop The ACLU, INTEL DUMP, Liberty Street, UrbanGrounds, Pharyngula and Donklephant
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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.
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 …
Associated Press:
Bush says Rumsfeld is stepping down — WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stepped down as defense secretary on Wednesday, one day after midterm elections in which opposition to the war in Iraq contributed to heavy Republican losses. — President Bush said he would nominate Robert Gates …
Think Progress:
VIDEO: Bush Admits He Lied About Rumsfeld For Political Purposes »
VIDEO: Bush Admits He Lied About Rumsfeld For Political Purposes »
Discussion:
Seeing the Forest
Kristin Roberts / Reuters:
Democrats' win alone won't drive Rumsfeld out
Democrats' win alone won't drive Rumsfeld out
Discussion:
Townhall.com Blog's …
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.
Discussion:
Redstate, The Strata-Sphere, Hyscience, TalkLeft, The Agonist, The Glittering Eye, Blue Crab Boulevard, The Heretik and State of the Day
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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 — The votes — and possible recounts — aren't totally in yet from the landmark 2006 mid-term elections but this much is clear: — The Democrats will take control of the House.
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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Timothy Dwyer / Washington Post:
Webb, Allen Race Too Close to Call
Webb, Allen Race Too Close to Call
Discussion:
The Agonist, Riehl World View, Sisyphus, Gun Toting Liberal, PoliBlog (TM), Discourse.net, Slog and The Democratic Daily
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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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
Adam Nagourney / New York Times:
Democrats Seize Control of House; Senate Hangs on Virginia and Montana — Democrats seized control of the House of Representatives and defeated at least four Republican senators yesterday, riding a wave of voter discontent with President Bush and the war in Iraq.
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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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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
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
Michelle Malkin:
Conservatism did not lose — I'm hanging it up for the night, er, morning. Unlike Michael Moore in 2004, however, I will not be staying in bed for three days in a catatonic state. I will not need PEST shock therapy. I will not move to Australia. — A moonbat reader e-mailed a taunt earlier this evening: