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Vote for Change Affects Democrats, Rumsfeld
· The elections of Tuesday brought a lot of change to Washington and the nation yesterday.
That's because the Democratic Party won control of the House of Representatives as a result of the voting. The Democrats also could gain control of the Senate if Democrat Jim Webb pulls out a victory over Republican Senator George Allen in Virginia. Webb has a lead of about 7,000 votes out of the more than 2.3 million cast.
Because the race is so close, Allen has said he wants to wait for an official count -- which won't be done for several weeks -- before accepting the results.
Before the elections, the Republican Party had majorities in the 435-member House and the 100-member Senate.
Many people said they voted against Republicans because they were upset about the war in Iraq and the policies of Republican President George W. Bush. The president acted quickly yesterday to say that he heard what the voters were saying. He announced that Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, who directs the U.S. military in Iraq and all over the world, would be resigning from his job.
Bush called Rumsfeld "a superb leader" but said the time had come for a "fresh perspective" on the war in Iraq. Bush said that Robert Gates, who ran the Central Intelligence Agency (the nation's spy program) for the first President Bush, will be nominated to take over Rumsfeld's job.
Voters who chose Democrats over Republicans also will be looking to Democratic leaders to come up with ideas for change. One of the most important leaders of the Democratic Party is U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi of California. She likely will have a position called speaker of the House when the 110th Congress meets in January. That job is considered the third-most-important elected job in the federal government, behind the president and vice president.
Pelosi would be the first woman to hold the job of speaker.
