Hooray! Resurgent Democrats win control of the House! Democrats still need VA and MT to win the Senate, but in VA, Webb (the Dem) has declared victory and is ahead w/almost all votes counted (although there will almost certainly be a recount). In MT, Tester (the Dem) is ahead by 3,000 votes but one county — where I live and also Conrad Burns’ “home” county — is having a recount because of human error with the electronic counting machines. Of course, a recount raises the specter (in my mind, at least) of dirty tricks and vote-rigging—the count didn’t come out how the losers wanted, so they have a quick recount to make sure their candidate gets just enough votes to win. That wouldn’t happen, though, would it?

My paranoia aside, welcome back to divided and accountable government! (Let’s hope.) Is this election result a wholesale rejection of the Bush regime and its congressional lapdogs? Uh, yeah. But get ready for the Republican spin about this not being a mandate for Democrats, being about local issues not national or global issues, etc. Bullshit. People were freaking voting for Democratic governors just to send Bush a message on Iraq.

It’s about freaking time, is all I can say. Thanks America, for finally waking up and standing up to the “vote for Democrats and the terrorists win” lies that have kept the Republicans afloat since 9/11/01. Finally finally finally we’re going to get some reasonable discussion of real issues rather than having to put up w/a steady drumbeat of fearmongering and demagoguery that’s done nothing but make the world a less stable and secure place. Of course, the president still has the lead on foreign policy, but at least we can hope he’ll be held accountable for the most egregious of his many, many mistakes.

Finally, while I’m absolutely thrilled with the results, my happiness is dogged by two things. First, some of the Democrats who won last night are eerily like their Republican counterparts on many issues—anti-abortion, pro-gun, etc. Maybe that’s not a big deal, but it does seem to confirm that the political possibilities in this country have shifted far to the right on the whole. As L. put it, we’ve moved so far to the right that Reagan Republicans are now Democrats. That is not good.

Second, the Democrats have a lot of work to do and I don’t personally have a great deal of confidence that they’re up to the task. This is especially true if the Democrats do take the Senate (and I’m still very hopeful they will)—in that case, there will be no excuse if they don’t get things done domestically, and there will also be no one to blame if whatever the Dems do turns out unpopular. So they’ve got a huge challenge; here’s hoping they’re ready to meet it or Dems are going to really unhappy again in 2008.

I know this isn’t news, but since I heard these headlines last Friday or so I’ve just been shocked that I haven’t heard a deafening chorus of this from Democrats. Apparently the Dems are worried about looking “soft” on “terrorism” if they stand up and say “we oppose all torture.” I don’t know which is more horrifying—the fact that Republicans have agreed to allow torture (and, as I understand it, give the Executive the power to detain just about anyone it wants forever and without any possibility of judicial review), or the fact that Democrats are not taking a united and unflinching stand against it. This should be the number one campaign slogan nationwide:

Republicans compromise on torture. Democrats don’t.

It’s simple and ought to be true. Perhaps Democrats aren’t running on this slogan because it isn’t true? Or is it because they really are as spineless as Republicans say they are?

Oh, and one more thing: Has anyone else noticed how convenient it is for Republicans that gas prices are falling now, just a little more than a month before elections? (I guess other people have noticed.) It’s enough to give a conspiracy theorist fits…