Country of the Victorious Democrats
// The Success of the Democrats in the Congressional Elections will Harden US Policies Towards Russia
The midterm Congressional elections in the United States brought victory to the Democrats, who won a majority in the House of Representatives and who have a good chance at taking control of the Senate as well. The failure of the Republicans, who have been in power for 12 years, will mean serious adjustments in the course of America's foreign policy, particularly in the direction of Russia. Yesterday US President George Bush announced the retirement of Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, who was one of the main architects of US foreign policy. With details from Washington is Kommersant's correspondent Dmitry Sidorov.
Congressman Lantos' New Weapon
The preliminary returns in America's midterm Congressional elections on Tuesday showed that the Democrats, who have been in the opposition in Congress for the last 12 years, are returning triumphantly to power. Having gained control over the House of Representatives, the Democrats also look likely to win a majority in the Senate (they need only to win in Virginia, where the ballots are still being counted). The Democratic victory will bring with it a change of leadership in the US Congress. The post of speaker of the House, the third in line to the presidency behind the president and vice president, will pass to 66-year-old Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), the current Democratic minority leader. The chairmanship of the House international affairs committee will go to Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos, who is well-known in Russia as one of the American establishment's harshest and most irreconcilable critics of the Kremlin.
Mr. Lantos has repeatedly spoken of the worrisome human-rights situation in Russia, referred to Mikhail Khodorkovsky as a "political prisoner," and called for Russia to be excluded from membership in the G8 group of industrialized powers on grounds that the country does not measure up to the standards of the club of democratic nations.
Until yesterday, the "anti-Russian initiatives" of Tom Lantos received no airtime in the administration of US President George Bush. Mr. Lantos and his supporters were little more that a small group of lawmakers with little foreign policy clout in Washington before these elections, but the White House will now find it increasingly difficult to disregard his position. In practical terms, the new Democratic leadership in Congress will probably mean additional complications for Russia's WTO accession, quick repeal of the Jackson-Vanick amendment, and problems in voting on two-sided documents, particularly with regard to deals like a cooperation agreement on atomic energy.
Commenting on the results of the midterm elections, which many in the US are calling a referendum on the nation's trust in President Bush, newly-minted speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi yesterday confirmed that the foreign policy course charted by Washington is due for serious corrections. "Mr. President, we need a new leadership," announced Ms. Pelosi yesterday in a statement to George Bush. Later she called on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to retire (yesterday Mr. Bush confirmed that Mr. Rumsfeld will retire, and sources in the Pentagon have already leaked the name of his successor: former CIA chief Robert Gates). In Ms. Pelosi's opinion, the Democrats' victory was won by the desire of the American people for change, "particularly with regard to Iraq." "We cannot continue our catastrophic course in Iraq," declared the new speaker of the House. Ms. Pelosi did not specify exactly how the Democrats intend to change the Bush administration's policies in Iraq. On the one hand, according to a Kommersant source close to the Democratic Party leadership, no one is talking now about a quick withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. At the same time, however, the Democrats cannot help but calculate that that their victory at the polls was in large measure made possible by the growing tide of antiwar sentiment in America.
Victors Don't Smoke
The elections that brought overwhelming defeat for George Bush's party began with Mr. Bush casting his vote near his family's ranch in Crawford, in Mr. Bush's home state of Texas. Speaking afterwards to journalists, George Bush, his face tense, called on his fellow Americans to vote independently of party affiliation. That call was addressed mainly to two groups in the electorate: those who remained undecided on the day of the elections and those who generally fail to see voting as fulfilling a civic obligation.
It was a last-ditch attempt to save the game: the Republicans were desperately hoping that winning over these two groups of voters would make it possible for them to face down worrisome pre-election forecasts and preserve their majority in Congress. However, the last Republican hopes were dashed when yesterday morning's election returns gave a early victory to the Democrats in the House of Representatives. The Republicans lost 30 seats in the House, giving the Democrats twice the number of seats that they needed to gain the upper hand.
The Democratic and Republican National Committees (DNC and RNC) headquarters are located only 400 meters from each other, steps from the Capitol Building. On Tuesday, lights burned through the night in almost every window in both committee headquarters.
The RNC occupies two neighboring buildings. One is open to the public, but the other is closed to outsiders: this is the nerve center of the party, where different campaign strategies are worked out.
The center of the Republican gathering was a bar in the basement that featured a television around which 300 or so people clustered. Unlike in many bars and restaurants in Washington, smoking in the bar is permitted, and not only cigarettes: cigars, the pride of many a Republican, are allowed as well.
To the surprise of your correspondent, the majority of the Republicans in the bar were outwardly calm, even relaxed, with two exceptions. One fellow, chewing on a cigar with his eyes fixed on the election results filling the television screen, was cursing loudly. Another was complaining that he was too tense to watch, upon which someone told him to "turn the damn thing off already!"
The bar in the DNC headquarters was under the watchful eyes of three policemen, who nevertheless did not question guests as they arrived. The Democrats explained to Kommersant that the policemen were there in case of large crowds. At first the atmosphere in the "democratic bar" was even tenser than it had been among the Republicans. Smoking was forbidden, except at the bar stools. The Democrats were more casually dressed than the Republicans, sporting fewer suits and ties, and their ethnic makeup was significantly more varied.
Superficially, the Democrats appeared to be less emotional that the denizens of the neighboring Republican bar. The only show of indignation here was provoked by the news of former Democratic presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman's victory in the Connecticut Senate race. The Democrats had rejected Mr. Lieberman in the primaries because of his support for the Iraq war, leading the offended Senator to seek revenge on his former party comrades by running for re-election on the Independent ticket. For that he earned the title of "traitor," which was met in the with loud applause.
The Democrats' First Victims
Once the outcome of the battle for the House of Representatives had become clear, America's attention switched to the struggle for control of the Senate. One of the most painfully-felt losses for the Republicans was the defeat of incumbent Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), the third-ranking Congressional Republican who had campaigned for bans on abortion and same-sex marriage. Despite the fact that Mr. Santorum spent $25 million on his campaign, $10 million more than his opponent, Bob Casey, Mr. Casey pulled out a win to become the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Pennsylvania since 1962.
In order to gain control of the Senate, the Democrats need to win at least six seats. As of yesterday, the last remaining piece in the puzzle was Virginia, where the votes were still being counted. Observers noted that the fate of the majority in the Senate could remain in limbo for several weeks while the ballots are recounted in the race between the Republican incumbent, George Allen, and his Democratic challenger, Jim Webb. Data from yesterday showed Mr. Webb, the former head of the IMF's US division, ahead of Mr. Allen by a little more than 7,000 votes, around 0.5% of the total.
Regardless of the delay in the full picture of the results of the US midterm elections, the clear victory of the Democrats cannot help but bring with it personnel changes within the Republican ranks. By all appearances, joining Donald Rumsfeld as one of the first victims of the "democratic revolution" will be top presidential strategist and advisor Karl Rove. According to information obtained by Kommersant, this week's elections could be Mr. Rove's last: Mr. Rove, the architect of many a Republican election campaign, who not long ago was heard repeating that the Republicans would not give up their majority in either the House or the Senate, may be on his way out of the White House.
Dmitry Sidorov, Washington
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 09, 2006
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