US News
Bush loses majority in Iraq-influenced election
By Tony Czuczka
Nov 8, 2006, 19:00 GMT

Washington - Opposition Democrats swept into control of the House of Representatives after 12 years and were on the verge of taking the Senate Wednesday, propelled by US voters who handed President George W Bush a stinging setback over the war in Iraq.

With most ballots counted from Tuesday's congressional elections, control of the 100-seat Senate hinged on tight races in Virginia and Montana between Republican incumbents and Democratic centrist challengers.

Beaming Democratic leaders celebrated the House victory as a mandate for change - topped by finding a way out of Iraq, where nearly 3,000 US soldiers have died in more than three years of war, and cleaning up Congress after a series of Republican scandals.

California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, poised to become the first woman speaker of the House, said that the country 'cannot continue down this catastrophic path.'

'Mr President, we need a new direction in Iraq,' she told cheering Democrats in Washington. 'Let us work together to find a solution to the war in Iraq.'

The centre-left Democrats gained many as 28 seats from the Republicans in the 435-member House, well more than the 15 needed to win a majority, US television networks said, citing projections from incomplete returns. One interim count gave the Democrats 227 seats and the Republicans 197, with 11 still to be decided.

In Montana, state election officials said that problems with new electronic voting machines would delay the result of the Senate until later Wednesday. In Virginia, absentee ballots were still being counted in a race so close that it could prompt a recount, which would likely delay an official result for weeks.

After six years in office, Bush now faces at least one opposition- led legislative chamber for his final two years as president. The new Congress convenes in January.

Under the presidential system, he is commander-in-chief of the US military, wields broad powers to set foreign policy and can veto legislation. But Bush's refusal to set a timetable for a US troop withdrawal from Iraq is certain to come under intense pressure.

Democrats had turned the elections into a referendum on Bush and the war in Iraq, which polls show most Americans believe has gone wrong. Bush's approval ratings have slumped, hovering around 40 per cent.

In pre-election surveys, Americans consistently ranked the war in Iraq as their top concern, even as Bush declared it the 'central front' in the fight against terrorism and said that Democrats would abandon Iraq and make the US less safe.

Scandals in Congress and the federal government's botched response last year after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans weighed on Bush and the Republicans.

'We always recognized this was going to be a challenging year,' said Republican Party national chief Ken Mehlman. 'Whenever a nation is at war, a president's party typically loses seats. We will try to work on a bipartisan basis.'

In the flush of victory, Democrats pledged to fight for a fairer economy, do more to break US dependence on foreign oil and heal a politically polarized nation.

'We will reach across the partisan divide and set aside bitterness of the past years,' said Congressman Rahm Emanuel, who led the House Democrats' campaign effort.

Among the defeated Republican senators: Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, a moderate who voted for the invasion of Iraq; Rick Santorum, a fervent war supporter and leading social conservative; Mike DeWine of Ohio, where local Republicans were dogged by corruption scandals; Jim Talent of Missouri, where stem-cell research became a key issue.

The Democrats overtook the Republicans in the nation's state governor mansions, 28-22, with a net gain of six gubernatorial races.

Amy Walter of the Washington-based, nonpartisan Cook Political Report suggested the election was more a vote against the Republicans than for the Democrats.

Walter cited 'a very motivated anti-status quo electorate. It's against the Republicans, who are in charge,' she told CNN.

The war in Iraq propelled many voters to cast ballots Tuesday.

'I would have been one who said we shouldn't have gone there in the first place,' said Virginia voter Mark Black, 32. 'People who want more of the same didn't get my vote.'

Bush planned to hold a news conference at 1800 GMT Wednesday.