Marines Get the News From an Iraqi Host: Rumsfeld's Out.  'Who's Rumsfeld?'  —  Hashim al-Menti smiled wanly at the marine sergeant beside him on his couch.  The sergeant had appeared in the darkness on Wednesday night, knocking on the door of Mr. Menti's home.

RNC asks Steele to replace Mehlman  —  Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, whose party just lost both chambers of Congress, will leave his position in January, and the post as party chief has been offered to Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele.

Removal of Rumsfeld Dates Back to Summer  —  Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld walking back to his motorcade Thursday after touring the Eisenhower Museum in Abilene, Kan.  —  President Bush was moving by late summer toward removing Donald H. Rumsfeld as defense secretary, people inside and outside the White House said Thursday.

McGovern to Meet With Congress on War  —  George McGovern, the former senator and Democratic presidential candidate, said Thursday that he will meet with more than 60 members of Congress next week to recommend a strategy to remove U.S. troops from Iraq by June.

Only a Minor Earthquake  —  How serious is the "thumpin' " the Republicans took on Tuesday?  Losing one house is significant but hardly historic.  Losing both houses, however, is defeat of a different order of magnitude, the equivalent in a parliamentary system of a vote of no confidence.

Understanding Gates  —  It's Not as Simple as Father's Team vs. Son's  —  In the early months of 1989, the overriding foreign policy issue for the new George H.W. Bush administration was how to deal with Mikhail Gorbachev.  Did the Soviet leader represent fundamental change, or was he merely a new face for the same old policies?

Hoyer, Murtha Battle  —  As Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) pledged Wednesday to rule the House fairly in the 110th Congress as the first-ever female Speaker, a handful of senior Democrats moved aggressively to secure other leadership posts in their nascent majority.

Democrats are set to subpoena  —  The new majority is expected to hold hearings on military spending and the Iraq war — just for starters.  —  WASHINGTON — Rep. Ike Skelton knows what he will do in one of his first acts as chairman of the Armed Services Committee in the Democratic-led House …

Oh, why don't you just admit it?  —  Okay, I'm depressed about the election.  —  She asks herself a question, then answers it — Rumsfeldianly.  —  What is it, exactly?  —  It's the failure of Americans to support the war.  It's the folding and crumpling because things didn't go well enough …

TO THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI  —  Today is the birthday of the United States Marine Corps.  The Marine Corps Museum (depicted above) opens today in Quantico — "a monument to honor, courage and commitment."  Earlier this week Mark Yost previewed the museum in an excellent column (subscribers only) for the Wall Street Journal.

Redistricting: Home to Roost  —  How Republicans'  —  Gerrymandering Efforts  —  May Have Backfired  —  WASHINGTON — Gerrymandering was supposed to cement Republican control of the House of Representatives, offering incumbents a wall of re-election protection even as public opinion turned sharply against them.

Out-of-Work GOP Aides Face Tough Road Ahead  —  The hundreds of Republican staffers — not to mention more than a few Members — who will lose their jobs in the next few weeks are going to face a hostile marketplace on K Street as unemployed Republicans flood the market.

On a Shifting Field, a Sense of Rising Expectations  —  It was no doubt inadvertent, but it was hard not to find some symbolism in the moment Thursday in the Oval Office when President Bush seemed to forget that Vice President Dick Cheney was in the room.  —  Representatives Nancy Pelosi …

Students at Calif. College ban Pledge of Allegiance  —  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Student leaders at a California college have touched off a furor by banning the Pledge of Allegiance at their meetings, saying they see no reason to publicly swear loyalty to God and the U.S. government.