A ‘sea change’ in U.S. political landscape

AFTER 12 years, Democrats have regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives. At this time, Democrats have won 227 out of 435 seats, taking 27 seats away from Republican incumbents. Only 14 seats remain undecided.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi is set to become the first woman Speaker in U.S. Congress history. The California representative is the second biggest fund raiser of the Democratic Party, after former first lady Hillary Clinton. Senator Clinton easily won her re-election bid in New York.

During an interview with CNN, Pelosi said simply, “Maybe it takes a woman to clean (the) House.” When the reporter questioned her statement as a bit sexist and asked her if she had said it deliberately, Pelosi asserted that she signified the coming change in American politics and vowed to put aside “partisanship for partnership.”

In other historic feats by Democratic Party candidates, Keith Ellison was the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress while Deval Patrick was voted the first black governor of Massachusetts. Democrat Robert Byrd of West Virginia became the longest serving senator at 88.

Bernie Sanders, an independent who won in Virginia, was the first socialist member of the Senate.

Meanwhile, another independent candidate, former Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman, successfully reclaimed his Senate seat in Connecticut. Lieberman and Sanders said they would side with the Democrats, according to BBC.

Although Democrats have clinched the majority in the House, the election returns of Montana and Virginia have yet to be fully processed at this time. Democratic candidate Jim Webb has claimed victory over Republican Sen. George Allen. But Allen has yet to concede, as under U.S. law, if the number of votes separating two candidates is less than one percent of the total votes cast, the losing candidate may request for a recount.

At this time, Democrats have also gained six gubernatorial posts and are two seats shy of gaining a majority in the Senate. The Democrats have hailed the election results as a repudiation of President George W. Bush and his foreign and domestic policies. The GOP admits that American voters have “rejected the status quo” but insists that many still support the war on Iraq.

The Republican campaign was severely damaged when Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials. After that came the so-called Foley scandal, in which Florida Rep. Mark Foley resigned after he was accused of sending sexually explicit emails to teenage congressional pages. Foley’s name remained on the ballot, but Joe Negron, the Republican who ran in his place, lost by only one percent to Democratic candidate Tim Mahoney.

An interesting election sidelight is the recognition by U.S. mainstream media networks of the power of bloggers in the political sphere. CNN gathered more than two dozen bloggers with diverse political leanings at an Internet lounge in Washington, DC, where they could monitor election returns on flat screen TVs. Free wireless access was provided — along with food and beverages. Some bloggers said that they helped to raise funds for their chosen candidates.

Democrats are also gearing up for seismic shifts in U.S. foreign policy, should they also clinch the majority in the Senate. In the House, Pelosi’s agenda includes implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 commission and redeploying American troops in Iraq to safer locations in order to minimize fatalities. Pelosi was one of the few Democrats who voted against authorizing the war on Iraq.

As various analysts have said, it’s too early to tell whether a Democrat majority in the House of Representatives will lead to the reduction of U.S. troops around the world. The U.S. has had a long history of intervention in the Philippines, which it colonized for almost fifty years. Dictator Ferdinand Marcos agreed to leave Malacañang after Paul Laxalt relayed then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s message to “Cut, and cut cleanly.”

The sight of U.S. warplanes flying over Malacañang was critical in helping former President Corazon Aquino survive a sixth coup attempt.

“Whether we like it or not, what the U.S. government does has a direct impact on the lives of Filipinos here or abroad,” according to a Business Mirror editorial. Nearly five million Filipinos live and work in the U.S. Filipinos are the second-largest immigrant population after Mexicans and the second-largest Asian-American community after Chinese-Americans.

According to the editorial, Filipino nurses are leaving in droves for the U.S. while U.S.-based outsourcing providers such as Accenture Ltd. are doing brisk business here.