- Katty Kay
- 9 Nov 06, 04:25 PM
If had been "let go" a few months ago, would the Republicans be facing such a desolate political landscape today?
That's the question being asked by some bitter party stalwarts who appear to believe the Senate, at least, would still be theirs if Rummy had gone in time for the Republicans to make political capital from the move.
But others disagree (by the way, I think we're going to see a lot of this over the next two years: disagreement amongst Republicans, amongst Democrats, between the two parties and between Congress and the White House).
Look at the exit polls. Yes, Iraq was a big factor, but so was corruption.
Conservatives were so fed up with the ethics of the party leadership that even putting Mr Rumsfeld up against a firing squad might not have changed their actions.
These elections have revealed chasms in both parties - now the battle begins for who controls the centre ground. It's going to be a fascinating two years - not pretty, but fascinating.
Katty Kay is a presenter on
- Gavin Esler
- 9 Nov 06, 03:45 PM
My thanks to all those of you who tried to convert me to the American breakfast in your replies to my blogs (here and here).
I'm on my way back to the UK and just wanted to tell you of the two all-American breakfasts that I do love to eat: fresh OJ, bagels and lox - especially, of course, in New York City - and my truly guilty secret: I love .
I must be a Southern boy at heart.
Or maybe because it's close to the of my native Scotland.
For those of you around the world who don't know what I mean, grits are a kind of corn porridge, mostly eaten in the South.
Unfortunately I don't know of any source of supply of grits in England, but would be pleased to hear of one. Grits really are food for the soul.
Gavin Esler presents 大象传媒 TV's Newsnight programme
- The Reporters
- 9 Nov 06, 11:33 AM
, blogging at the National Review, puts a brave face on the Republicans' election defeat: "Sometimes you'll be convinced you have fantastic arguments, and the other guy doesn't know what he's talking about. And yet sometimes they choose the other guy. Sometimes you lose. It stinks, but it happens."
greets the nomination of Bob Gates as Donald Rumsfeld's replacement at the Pentagon with some disbelief, recalling his days as CIA chief while new Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega headed the Sandinista rebels during the 1980s. "History doesn鈥檛 just repeat itself; it repeats itself with the same exact people."
welcomes the new-look Congress, calling the Democrats' win "a glimmer of light after being lost in the forest for two long years". But he is quick to assert that the vote was really an anti-Republican protest, not a pro-Democrat swing.
, though, laments the Democratic rise, insisting that just because core Republican voters were upset with President Bush, there was no need to put "the worst of the worst" into leadership positions.
