My view is that we had so many inspectors in there and enough forces in the region to back up the inspectors that we sort of had Saddam pinned down, in terms of his ability to do something fairly far-reaching with weapons of mass destruction.

How many times have we heard that before? Democrats justifying Saddam Hussein staying in power; making excuses for why we shouldn’t have invaded Iraq. Not understanding the seriousness of the threat that was posed to our country and the rest of our allies in the region. But this isn’t a quote from Nancy Pelosi, it is actually from an interview from August, 2004 with our new Secretary of Defense, Mr. Robert M. Gates. I don’t know exactly what Bush is saying with this nomination, but its not “stay the course.” Interesting.

I woke up Wednesday morning and looked out my fourth story window to discover that the torrential rains of the night before had washed away most of the red and yellow leaves that had accumulated in the streets over the past month. Despite being early November, my google weather report said that it was to be 65 degrees with only the highest of high wisps of clouds overhead. But much more had been washed away from the streets of DC the night before. I had stayed up until 4 in the morning watching the unofficial results come in from Montana and Virginia, so I wasn’t shocked to see that both Tester and Webb were holding on to slim leads, and along with them the Democrats hanging on to control of the Senate; I just didn’t really believe it.

It’s been a long time for Democrats. I should rephrase that: it’s been a long time for those of us who couldn’t understand what was wrong with our country that they would blindly follow cocksure leaders down an obviously wrong path. Over the last 6 years, my faith has admittedly been shaken. I had begun to believe that our politicians could flaunt rules and procedures, push the boundaries of corruption, make countless errors of judgment and ignore Constitutional mandates, all with few repercussions. I thought perhaps that there truly was an unbridgeable divide between parts of the country that would never be able to communicate without partisan rhetoric, let alone actually agree. There may still be, and indeed, the country is as divided as ever. But I have regained some, a sliver, of faith in the notion of politicians actually being held accountable for countless breaches of the nation’s trust.

The short-lived neo-conservative run has come to an end. The pendulum has swung back to Democrats and it will undoubtedly swing back again. The lessons of the past are rarely taken to heart, and it won’t be long before Democrats are committing the sins of old. But for now, and in this one moment of change, we may actually be able to uncover some of the falsities and lies that have brought us to this point in history. The Congress that enabled our leaders to write, sign and cash their own political check has been held accountable at the polls and now it is time for those leaders to answer the questions that we all need to know. If the Democrats don’t do one damn other thing for the next two years, it would still be a monumental victory for the country.