Holy Crap.

It's been two years already?

Politically speaking, it's felt like a lot longer. Iraq got worse. Partisanship got worse. Bush's strategy, to pander to his base and stay the course in Iraq brought him to the inevitable, unalterable destination- defeat.

I don't have real words to describe this, but I about broke into hysterical tears of happiness when I heard that Rumsfeld was stepping down in the face of the inevitable Democratic onslaught. And then I heard "It's over, the Democrats won" out of the President's mouth. (More on that below.)

I'm not even ecstatic, I'm just satisfied. Do we remember how crushed we all were, two years ago? The talk of moving to Canada, of disgust with our fellow countrymen, of futile, unbridled rage. I wonder how the Republicans feel?

Probably a lot like we did. Although they're doing a fairly decent job of eating crow. They had a hell of a lot more warning than we did in '04, since the weight of the electorate was clearly leaning in this direction for a matter of weeks. Their fears were confirmed last night, so I don't think it came as any huge surprise. They lost a few heartbreakers, and their hopes of holding the Senate to a 50-50 tie are flickering and fading under the specter of an Allen recount. I've never been politically active in the era of a Democratic Congress. This should be interesting.

The Weekly Standard is chock-full of election night tales of woe, if you want to exercise your constitutional right to schadenfreude. Watching Fox News today (ironically) I saw George Bush say the words, "It's over. The Democrats won," and couldn't stop grinning. I should point out that this happened in a room full of arch-conservative military police officers. Also, their boss had just resigned. I left, rather quickly.

But even they could probably understand my giddy confusion. This President has built a political legacy on the solid bedrock of denying the blatantly obvious. I saw a new man on television today, who said he'd work with us because we controlled the House of Representatives. To be honest, I almost thought he would declare martial law before allowing a Democratic majority to take over the House (and, pray God, the Senate.) But he didn't. He conceded defeat, he was relatively mature about it, and he stood up in front of a TV camera to acknowledge reality. He acknowledged what has been abundantly obvious for over a year- people think he and his buddies suck.

I actually walked by his house last night, through Lafayette Park, in the cool Washington rain. The flag was still flying above the White House as Bush awaited the election returns, and the camera crews had decided there were more ratings to be found in the Democratic parties than the Republican wakes. Inside, the most powerful man in the world was watching as Rove's tinted political windows, shielding him from the enormity of his mistakes, were torn away on CNN. I almost felt bad for the man.

HAH! Just kidding.

One point in the Republican column. They're not talking about moving to...damn, I can't even think of a country more conservative than this one. Saudia Arabia? The Vatican? Russia? Anyway, they're not talking about leaving the country, staging a coup (probably more up their alley) or advocating any other kind of departure from civil society.

It's an exciting time to be an American. It'd be more exciting if a Democratic Congress was starting out with the opportunity to build something, instead of the task of digging ourselves out of someone else's hole.