I get knocked down, but I get up again.

My friend Jenn wrote that Election Day is the New Year’s Eve for Washingtonians. We stay up late, drink heavily and watch the American public make it’s resolutions for the future of the government. Well if Election night ’06 was New Years Eve, then the aftermath was Christmas morning for Democrats. We went to sleep last night knowing there was a big box sitting under of our proverbial Christmas tree (or Chanukah Bush if you prefer) but instead of that blue bicycle, we got a Lexus. And damn, we’ll be taking that thing for a ride.

I usually don’t get too political in my blog. I tend to get pretty heated up about politics, to an unattractive, some would say whining, point. But this is my first election day in DC, the energy around me is electric, and I can’t not talk about it. (I enjoy that double negative)

Last night was an amazing reversal of 2004. Looking at the close elections in both Virginia and Montana, I am reminded of the sadness of watching Kerry behind in too close to call races, hoping he could somehow pull it together and win Ohio. We still are in too close to call situations, but instead it’s the republicans trailing, and the Democrats with small but substantial leads. After the heart breaking aftermath of 2004, I can’t even feel bad for them. Getting the Senate in Democratic hands would be outstanding. With the numbers on our side, we’re calling it for us. Put that in your political pipe and smoke it.

Rummy stepping down was just the icing on the cake. It spells out the significant defeat of the Republicans in this war that was executed poorly for imagined reasons. Watching Bush eat crow is a beautiful thing. He says he expected to win last night and was frankly surprised. It just goes to show what we all believe, which is that Bush and his aides have fashioned a nice little bubble for the presidency, in which he filters out the negative and focuses on what he wants to hear. At his press conference today, he really did seem like a defeated prince, awed by the message of discontent that was delivered by his once loyal subjects.

Here at the office, we’re still unable to grasp that we may be in control of the Senate. Out cautious Democrat optimism is keeping us from really thinking about it and letting it set in. Of course, that doesn’t mean we’re not gonna enjoy every minute of this.

Thanks to everyone who voted!