Democrats control Senate

WASHINGTON – Democrats completed an improbable double-barreled election sweep of Congress on Wednesday, taking control of the Senate with a victory in Virginia as they padded their day-old majority in the House.

Savoring their return to power, congressional Democrats pledged Wednesday to work closely with President Bush on a legislative agenda but demanded a change in course on Iraq and new directions on policies from the minimum wage to stem-cell research.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who will succeed Dennis Hastert as speaker, promised swift action early next year on a Democratic package including a $2.10 an hour increase in the minimum wage, full implementation of the recommendations of the bipartisan Sept. 11, 2001, commission, and making some tuition payments tax deductible.

Pelosi said she would not heed the calls of some activists on the left to explore impeaching the president. But with subpoena power and committee chairmanships, Democrats will ensure that Bush’s anti-terrorism and war policies receive tough scrutiny in the last two years of his presidency.

“Democrats are not about getting even, Democrats are about getting results,” she said at a news conference. “I have said before and I say again: Impeachment is off the table.”

Voters on Tuesday handed Democrats control of the House for the first time since 1994, giving the party a gain of 28 to 30 seats. In January, Pelosi will become the first female House speaker in history. Hastert, of Illinois, the longest-serving Republican speaker, announced he would step aside and let a new generation of Republican leaders emerge after this week’s losses.

Jim Webb’s victory over Sen. George Allen in Virginia assured Democrats of 51 seats when the Senate convenes in January. That marked a gain of six in midterm elections in which the war in Iraq and President Bush were major issues.

Earlier, state Sen. Jon Tester triumphed over Republican Sen. Conrad Burns in a long, late count in Montana.

Allen’s campaign issued a statement noting that state officials are conducting a canvass of the votes cast in Tuesday’s balloting. “At the conclusion of those efforts, Senator George Allen plans to make a statement regarding the outcome,” it said.

The Senate had teetered at 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans for most of Wednesday, with Virginia hanging in the balance. Webb’s victory ended Republican hopes of eking out a 50-50 split, with Vice President Dick Cheney wielding tie-breaking authority.

The Associated Press contacted election officials in all 134 localities in Virginia where voting occurred, obtaining updated numbers Wednesday. About half the localities said they had completed their postelection canvassing and nearly all had counted outstanding absentees. Most were expected to be finished by Friday.

The new AP count showed Webb with 1,172,538 votes and Allen with 1,165,302, a difference of 7,236. Virginia has had two statewide vote recounts in modern history, but both resulted in vote changes of no more than a few hundred votes.

In morning phone calls, Bush congratulated Pelosi, the House minority leader, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and invited them to a White House lunch today. Bush and Pelosi pledged to put behind them a bitter campaign in which the president had claimed that a Democratic victory would be a victory for terrorists and Pelosi repeatedly questioned the president’s competence.

“I’ve been around politics a long time,” Bush told reporters. “I understand when campaigns end and when the governing begins.”

But policy clashes are inevitable. Control of both houses of Congress would ramp up pressure on Democrats to turn their calls for change into quick legislative accomplishments.

Beyond the Democrats’ planned 100-hour blitz to pass most of their legislative agenda, Pelosi reiterated her pledge to restore fiscal discipline to Congress. That could pit her promises of federal largesse against Democratic desires not to roll back the president’s tax cuts before their scheduled 2011 expiration dates. She also vowed to enact the kind of sweeping controls on lobbying and ethics that Republican leaders promised this year but failed to deliver.

The Democratic victories also spell trouble for interim U.N. Ambassador John Bolton’s hopes for Senate confirmation, and greatly complicate Bush’s efforts to appoint conservatives to the federal bench. The administration is virtually certain to face greater congressional scrutiny – and possibly new legislative restrictions – on warrantless wiretaps, trade pacts, interrogation techniques for detainees and other controversial policies.

Rep. Thomas Davis, R-Va., said in an interview on Washington Post Radio that Bush will be “reacting to subpoenas flying, investigations.”

“If we tended to underinvestigate, I think you’ll see Democrats tend to overinvestigate,” Davis said.

Tuesday’s election results could be a boon for backers of wide-ranging changes to U.S. immigration laws, one of the few areas in which Bush differed with House Republicans and sided with a bipartisan Senate approach. Wednesday, Bush said of comprehensive changes to immigration laws: “I think we have a good chance. … It’s an important issue, and I hope we can get something done on it.”