Democrats triumph_英文原版

the house is taken, and the senate may fall. the result is a sharp reprimand for george bush, who has replaced donald rumsfeld as defence secretary

some had predicted a mere democratic ripple, others a high tide. in fact an unexpected wave—the sort that looks innocent for swimmers, but turns out to be surprisingly strong at the last moment—appeared at the end of america's mid-terms. the democrats captured the house of representatives, and comfortably so. more surprisingly, as the last results were tallied, the party was running the republicans close in the senate.

george bush acknowledged on wednesday november 8th that his party had taken a “thumping”. but he also said that even before the final results were in, he would accept the resignation of donald rusmfeld, the secretary of defence. mr bush announced that robert gates, a former head of the cia, will become the new boss at the pentagon. mr bush also congratulated the democratic victors, and announced plans to sit down with their leaders soon.

nancy pelosi (pictured) will be the speaker of the house, and will give many left-wing veterans of the house important committee chairmanships. the republican party evidently lost many of its stalwart supporters: small-government types, religious conservatives and those unhappy with iraq all had some reason to stay home, if not to vote democratic.

if the senate also falls into democratic hands, as looks likely, the situation looks difficult for mr bush's party. the republicans held one vulnerable-looking seat, in tennessee. but that was almost the only good news for him on the night. republicans lost in pennsylvania, ohio and rhode island. a more notable win for the democrats was in missouri, a slightly republican-leaning state bordering the south, the central plains and “upper midwestern” states, where claire mccaskill unseated the republican incumbent, jim talent.

but the drama of the night eventually centred on two extremely tight races. troubling for the republicans, the democrats' jon tester was running slightly ahead of an 18-year republican veteran, conrad burns, in montana, a western state that mr bush won by 20 points in 2004. mr tester has claimed victory, and several television news networks have now called the race in his favour.