I Voted: Part Trois
The Grand Finale

I woke up this morning on our living room futon to see our Christmas tree and the tv still on CNN from last night. I rubbed my eyes and realized that I wasn't dreaming, the Democrats really did take back the House and maybe even the Senate too. It may be November but it certainly feels like Christmas.

Last night I didn't go to bed until after 2am because I was so excited about the way things were turning out and I kept wanting to see more coverage. Pretty much all of today I was giddy with a huge smile on my face. My USAC election aside, this whole winning thing is a very foreign concept to me. For six years, I've been used to hearing concession speeches, seeing red on the map, and feeling down the day after the election.

Although it wasn't a perfect night, it was pretty darn close. Here are some highlights, in no particular order:

-Capitol Hill Hopping. Going down to the Hill with my roommate and two of our friends. All the bars were packed, like Super Bowl packed. Although we didn't end up staying at any of those bars, it was really entertaining to see all the TVs tuned in to CNN & MSNBC, pitchers of Blue and Red beer, and of course everyone sporting their "I voted" stickers on their suits.

-Speaker Pelosi. This just makes me really happy, especially as a female and a Californian. I can't believe that Nancy Pelosi, someone I've met and really like, is the highest ranking female in United States history. Although I think that we are leaps and bounds farther than most countries in terms of gender equality, we still have a long way to go and I feel like this is a great step in that direction.

-Seeing familiar names and faces win races. Since my job summer 2005 was to write analysis on competitive seats, convince people that they should donate money to those races, and actually hold fundraisers for many of those candidates, I feel a strong attachment with a lot of the pick-ups. I did help raise tons of money for Harold Ford Jr., and while it was really sad he lost, I was proud he put up a really good fight.

-A big tent once again. Although a large part of that tent's unity may come from being unified against Bush and/or pragmatic to win the majority, I like seeing that we have politicians wearing the democratic badge from all regions of the country and with all types of ideology. Who knew that Howard Dean, the man I thought might be polarizing and too liberal, would really follow through on his 50 state plan. Thank you Dr. Dean for not only helping us win in places like Kansas, Missouri, Montana and Kentucky, but also making us a national party once again.

-House Cleaning. Admittedly, there were probably some Republicans who weren't that bad and just were up for re-election at the wrong time. Yet on the whole, I feel like there was a grand cleansing in Congress. I feel like some of the people who gave Republicans the worst names were finally give the boot: Senator Rick Santorum (I've disliked him for as long as I've known him), Senator Conrad Burns (ask me about his Vodka incident in Russia), Representative Richard Pombo (I wrote about his environmental problems last summer), and hopefully Senator George Allen (I already disliked him and that despise grew as I had to watch his ads out here). Let's not forget that Tom Delay and Mark Foley's seats have also been picked up by Dems. Speaking of which...

-Rummy's Resignation. Need I say more? While I have to read more about CIA Director Gates being Rumsfield replacement, I do like the fact that he was on the bi-partisan Iraq Study Group looking at new plans for the war.

-Restoration of Checks and Balances. I might be in the vast minority with this belief, but I actually don't think that gridlock is a bad thing. If our founding fathers wanted an efficient federal government, they wouldn't have devised our system the way they did. There's plenty of other levels of government to deal with our day to day lives, no need to make a huge rush on the national level.

-A Fresh Start. I honestly believe that this is a good start for both parties. We've broadened our scope and the Republicans have lost a lot of people dragging them down or in the wrong direction. While this was a nasty election and there needs to be a lot of mending, I'm hopeful. I may just be completely dellusional from lack of sleep, but I do pray that both sides work together. Drastic changes won't be coming any time soon, but I'm in this for the long haul.