The midterm congressional election in the U.S.A. led to a complete success of Democrats. They managed to not only control the House of Representatives and hold most governors’ offices in the country, but they also won in the fight for the Senate which they had hoped to win till the very last moment. And the first sensational news was announced literarily in an instant: resignation of Pentagon Chief, Donald Rumsfeld, which was announced by George Bush on Wednesday. Moreover, the President admitted Republicans’ defeat and assumed his responsibility for the party-fellows’ failure at the election.

Several hours before the polling stations were closed it was clear that the Democratic Party was taking over the House of Representatives in congress. Democrats managed to defeat Republicans in 15 key districts. However, distribution of mandates in the Senate was not clear till the last moment. A little reminder: in order to win the election Democrats needed to have 51 out of 100 seats, however, Republicans only needed 50 votes because they would automatically get the 101st vote of the U.S. Vice President – the chairman of the Upper Chamber. The situation was resolved after manual recounting of votes in Virginia where James Webb, Democratic candidate, defeated Republican George Allen by a little more than 7 thousand votes which is an insignificant number on the state’s scale. However, it was enough for the Democrats to win the election.

The President Is Disappointed

Meanwhile George Allen did not accept his defeat. That is why another recounting of votes is possible. “There are many blank and spoiled ballots, so the real situation is still unknown”, the Republican said yesterday. The commission will determine final returns on November 27th, and if one of the candidates asks for a recount, it will be delayed till the beginning of December. However, it will be done only if the gap between the opponents is 0.5% of voices. Moreover, as it has already been reported by the Newspaper, Democrats are going to hold most governors’ offices in the country: 28 out of 50 states.

When the first preliminary results of the election were announced, George Bush declared at the press conference at the White House that he was disappointed with the results and assumed his responsibility for Republicans’ defeat. “Being the leader of the party, I accept responsibility for most of it”, said the U.S.A. President. Then he suggested that Republicans should not be too obsessed about that selection and they should work with Democrats and independent congressmen on the issues which are most important for the country.

When Bush was asked how he was going to cooperate with Democrats after both parties rained words of pre-election criticism on each other, Bush said: “I have been dealing with politics for a long time and I understand that when the campaign is over, administration begins. I will work with people from both parties.”

A New Insight for Iraq

Right after the election another more sensational statement came from the President Bush: Donald Ramsfeld, U.S. Minister of Defence, who was considered the main ideologist and war strategist in Iraq, suddenly resigned. As the American President confessed, the Iraqi policy of his administration didn’t work well enough or fast enough. Ramsfeld himself agreed that a new insight for that problem was required.

U.S. failures in Iraq were one of the main reasons of Republicans’ defeats. As for the resignation of Pentagon Chief who has been criticized a lot lately, it was predicted by analysts long before the election. Now everyone is confident that the U.S. policy in Iraq will change. It was actually confirmed by Nancy Pelosi who is most likely to fill the position of a speaker in the House of Representatives. She said: “We cannot follow this catastrophic policy any more. And that is why we tell our President: we should change the policy in Iraq. Let’s work together to find a solution.” A reminder: the next Pentagon Chief is going to be the Ex-CIA Chief, Robert Gates, who still needs to have the Senate’s support for that.

“Rumsfeld Should Be Imprisoned”

News about Rumsfeld’s resignation provoked a diverse reaction in the world. According to the words of Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, the resignation of the Pentagon Chief means that the U.S. policy has really started changing. Yasuhisa Shiozaki, Chief Cabinet Secretary, declared that his country is going to fulfill its commitments to Washington regarding restoration of Iraq and reorganization of U.S. military presence on the territory of Japan. However, Japan will not change its policies regarding Iraq after Rumsfeld’s resignation.

Yesterday Australian Prime Minister John Howard passed a remark that Democrats’ victory will not lead to withdrawal of troops from Iraq. He also hopes that U.S.A. strategy will not change.

As always Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, was not too fastidious in his choice of words and expressed his extreme satisfaction with the resignation of the Pentagon Chief. He said that “the heads” (Washington) had started falling. He also added: “It is time for the President Bush to resign now. As for Rumsfeld, he should be imprisoned.”

U.S. Minister of Defence told the press that he had decided to resign mainly due to the changes in the political sphere after the congressional election. A reminder: he had occupied that position since January 2001, and George Bush excluded any possibility of Rumsfeld’s resignation quite recently. It also reminds us about another recent President’s statement about another “hawk” in the administration – his Vice-President, Dick Cheney. Bush confirmed that Cheney is going to keep his position till the end of his presidential term.

Analysts Believe That John Bolton’s Resignation as a U.S.A. Representative in U.N.O. Is Possible

In any case, the changes in the administration have just begun and President Bush has been predicted to have a hard life of a “lame duck” next two years.