The election has only called for barely 12 hours and already the winds of change are stirring. After months of ignoring increasingly desperate calls for his resignation and a mere week after Bush stepped up at a press conference and publicly defended his VP and Secretary of Defense against charges of mismanagement, Donald Rumsfeld will be leaving the cabinet. And the heavens sang hallelujah.

This is by far the clearest sign that Bush’s reign of idiocy is coming to a swift end with the brutal defeat of the Republican rubber-stamp congress in an election that provided all the thrills and chills of an ancient gladiator grudge match. Now, it is no secret that I hate sports. They’re boring, stupid, and prove beyond a doubt just how physically uncoordinated I really am. I’ve never really understood the passion that people feel for their game, until I found myself tracking the midterms with as much intensity as some fans follow their chosen teams. The past month has found me tracking poll results and reading into politico’s personal lives with an eye toward anything that could swing the vote one way or another. I even started tracking the electoral betting odds over at tradesports.com. I was like a man possessed.

I approached last night with all the giddiness and excitement of a kid on Christmas Eve, a headiness that I have not felt about a political event since the tragic events of 2000. It was the Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup, and Final Four all rolled into one. The work day passed in a blur with me checking the news sites every couple minutes to read reports of voter suppression and intimidation from threatened incumbents who knew that they could only rely on such corrupt tactics for re-election because running on their voting record and stance on issues was sure as shit not going to keep them in power. Read with increasing rage the tales that poured in about repeated robo-calling from phone banks representing themselves as Dem challengers. Listened to the threatening calls made to Dems in Virginia threatening them with arrest if they attempted to vote. Thought I smelled another rotten election.

Finally the day ended and I made my way home, celebratory bottle of wine clutched in my hands, ready to watch 8 hours of post-election coverage courtesy of MSNBC and Keith Olbermann. Well, as much Keith Olbermann as one could hear over the incessant ramblings of that windbag, Chris Matthews. A ball gag for him would have been in order, especially once it got to be 12:30 on the East Coast and his sentences increasingly made less sense. Regardless of the inanity of the talking heads blathering on my screen, I was unable to tear myself away from the non-stop coverage or from hitting the refresh button on DailyKos to see what the net pundits had to say about the election they had invested so much of themselves and their reputation on. No matter what the mainstream media has to say on the subject, this election made the netroots a political force to contend with as one after another of their championed candidates swept to victory in elections that the DNC had previously written off as unwinnable. Shit, they even made Idaho a battleground, which is really saying something.

I watched with increasing delight as the results came rolling in, one precinct at a time, and it became obvious that the Dems were not only going to win the House, but have such a solid majority that several members could decide to not even show up and the Dem’s dominance still would be assured. I watched with joy as Pennsylvania reported the downfall of Curt “why’s everybody always trying to investigate me?” Weldon and Don “I choke my Peruvian mistress, but I’m strong on family values” Sherwood. Chortled with mirth as indicted former Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s seat in the heart of conservative Texas went to Democratic challenger Nick Lampson. Was surprised to see just how close Mark Foley’s Florida 16th District came to staying Republican, especially because voters had to vote for Foley in order to choose replacement candidate Negron. Who is going to vote for a child molestor? Kat said it best, “Florida’s weird.” Was overjoyed to see Anti-Environment crusader Dick Pombo get the boot from intelligent Stockton-area voters in favor of Jerry McNerney. Was even more pleased to see Phoenix’s JD Hayworth defeated by Harry Mitchell after years of squeaking by in elections highlighting Hayworth’s rampant corruption and contempt for the democratic process. Then in a new step forward for multiculturalism, Minnesota elected the nation’s first Muslim congressman in the form of Keith Ellison.

The fun didn’t stop there, however, as I watched one Senate seat after another slide our way. In another sign of increasing intelligence in Pennsylvania, voters gave man-dog lover Ricky Santorum a solid trouncing, leading to one of my favorite concessions of the night. Almost as good was watching the train wreck of the Katherine Harris (she who gave the presidency to Bush in ‘00) campaign collide against incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson after she blew millions of her own dollars and sold her D.C. home in a last ditch fund-raising attempt. She will not be missed. The only low-point of the evening was watching Joe Loserman successfully court the Republican vote in Connecticut and return to the Senate as a representative of the Lieberman for Lieberman party after the National Democratic Party all but abandoned it’s chosen candidate, Ned Lamont. I became extremely jealous of residents of Vermont and their ability to consistently elect progressive leaders, this time with the election of self-styled socialist Bernie Sanders. Damn, Vermont has the right idea. With the addition of Sherrod Brown’s defeat of Ohio Senator Mike DeWine and Sheldon Whitehouse’s defeat of Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee, the idea of a Democratic Senate grew less and less preposterous.

Only three seats more needed to swing Dem to give the Senate the same jolly makeover that the House received. With Ford’s loss to Corker in Tennessee after the RNC played on tried and true fears of miscegenation with below the belt campaign ads, it seemed the only chance for this was if the Dems took the last three races of the night: Virginia, Missouri, and Montana. I watched the talking heads hedge their bets and refuse to call any of the open states for the Dems, even though in Montana and Missouri the Dems were up by at least 14,000 against their opponents. The only state that looked close to me was Virginia, where Webb and Allen traded the lead all night until Allen went to bed claiming to continue the fight in the morning and Webb, with a mere 2,000 vote lead, pre-emptively declared himself the winner in a move reminiscent of Bush’s performance in Florida during the 2000 election. Call yourself the winner and let public opinion begin to turn that way. Manifest your own reality. Went to bed with the sure knowledge of waking up to a Democrat-controlled Senate and a much relieved nation.

So, Democrats, it’s in your hands now. You managed to rally enough disaffected Repuglicans and unaffiliated voters to get your majority. Don’t waste it. Stay strong and firm on issues you believe in, your historic weakness has been your extraordinary ability to give ground at the slightest sign of opposition, but if you want to keep your majority then you need to actually legislate. The Bush administration is scared. Just look at Rumsfeld’s resignation, just a week after it looked as though he would be here for the long haul. Don’t let them lose that fear. You have subpoena power, use it. There have been countless backroom deals and corrupt decisions made and the voters are expecting you to take the parties responsible to task. Don’t forget that there’s another election in a mere two years, and you will be held accountable for what you accomplish. Don’t make me go back to voting for third party candidates who actually represent my political viewpoint! I’ll do it! I’ll throw that vote away!