Now that the Democrats have won control of the House of Representatives, and soon the Senate, I can only hope that the victory will be used constructively.

A worst-case scenario in my mind for the Congress would mean that the Democrats begin to complain about what the Republicans had left them with now that they’re in power (as how the Republicans complained about how the Clinton administration left them unprepared for combating terrorism) and that the Republicans may decide to filibuster every step of the way for the Democrats when they introduce legislation. However, I doubt this will be the case.

It came as a surprise to me to learn that Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, had resigned from his position running the Pentagon. Originally, I imagined that he would fight any attempts on the part of Democrat controlled Congress to have him step down, knowing that he played an important role in the Bush Administration. Now that he has left, it signals that the Administration is possibly open for compromise, especially where the Democrats and voters want it – Iraq.

I’m a fiscal conservative, and I find it great to hear that the Democrats had won control of the House, not because Democrats are known for being fiscally conservative (historically, they’re not), yet in the past years, President Bush had refused to veto any spending bills from the Republican controlled Congress (Bush has not vetoed any bill as of yet to be exact) in fear that he would alienate himself from his own party. However, now that he no longer has to keep in line with what Congress has to offer, he’s open to veto spending bills if it should turn out that the Democrats introduce new, or raise current taxes.

Aside from spending bills, I hope that more oversight comes as a result concerning issues of how we conduct ourselves on the war against terrorism, so that now, we may be able to better secure the rights of detainees as well as the privacy of average Americans.

I don’t want to say that I’m entirely happy that the Democrats have won control of Congress (abortion and spending are issues where I disagree with the Democrats), yet I think it’s enough to know that change is in the air, and that progress can be made towards getting ourselves out of Iraq (while maintaining Iraq is secure enough first) among other key issues.