Well, it's semi-official now ... Democrats have both houses of Congress

Senator-to-be James Webb celebrates apparent win

Hopefully, the results will stand and the White House will have its feet held to the fire during the final two years of President Bush's tenure. But with the results as of this morning, it does indeed look as though the US Senate will be held by the Democrats (including two independents) 51-49 and thus have such important powers as subpoena power to conduct oversight on the War in Iraq and Constitutional impropriety.

The new Majority leader in the US Senate would be Senator Harry Reid of Nevada (below) if things tally up in the final count as they are right now. As it is, James Webb (above) has a 7,000 vote lead (less than 1%) in Virginia (over Senator Allen) and the tightness of the race might still requite a recount.

Of course, we all hope that, if Webb wins, the Democratic Senate will put "oversight" ahead of "overlook" when it comes to hundreds of thousands of missing weapons in Iraq and more than a trillion dollars unaccounted for ... and a dozen or so other matters.

But anyway, here's hoping ...


Senator Harry Reid, Democrat from Nevada and likely new Majority Leader in the US Senate