Tuesday’s election removed any doubts that the public wants a different direction regarding the war in Iraq.

Exit polls listed the war and a string of ethical stumbles under the Republican majority in the House of Representatives as primary reasons that voters gave Democrats clear control of the House and possibly, depending on what happens in Virginia, a slender majority in the Senate.

But with President Bush having another two years in the White House, the election outcome might merely have set the stage for an impasse between the administration and the new Democratic regime in Congress.

Then, as campaign workers were still rubbing the morning-after sleep from their eyes on Wednesday, word came that Donald Rumsfeld will step down as secretary of defense and yield the job to former CIA director Robert Gates, a one-time member of the National Security Council. That is a hopeful sign.

Rumsfeld was the architect of the failed strategy in Iraq and the primary target of criticism, an increasing amount of which was coming from American military leaders, both retired and active.

“It is one thing for the majority of Americans to think Rumsfeld has failed,” the pro-military private publication Army Times editorialized Saturday. “But when the nation’s current military leaders start to break publicly with their defense secretary, then it is clear that he is losing control of the institution he ostensibly leads.”

From the beginning, Rumsfeld has been stubbornly unfazed by any criticism of the Iraqi military policy that even a leading neocon like Richard Perle now acknowledges was a mistake.

In the face of clear evidence to the contrary, Rumsfeld defended the thin deployment of manpower as adequate to do the job that still isn’t getting done. He insisted on breaking up Iraq’s previous security forces, leaving the country without trained personnel to assume responsibility for order in their own turbulent nation.

No matter who holds power in the legislative branch, Rumsfeld was unlikely to strike a conciliatory tone.

However, his departure and Gates’ likely confirmation by the Senate – plus the strong reminder voters delivered on Tuesday that they are watching – make it possible for a fresh, collaborative approach to developing an exit strategy in the Middle East.

Bush won’t abandon his fundamental support for the military adventure in Iraq. But a new secretary of defense won’t be tied to the strategic shortcomings that got his predecessor in trouble.

“I am making a change at the secretary of defense to bring a fresh perspective as to how to achieve something I think most Americans want, which is victory,” is how the president put it to reporters at a press conference Wednesday.

Although Gates was a controversial figure during the Iran-Contra affair, he has been identified by some analysts as more pragmatic and less ideological than Rumsfeld. Moreover, he’s seen as more likely to have the respect of military professionals.

In the aftermath of this historic election, both the president and the apparent next House speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, have promised a bipartisan approach to dealing with Iraq and other national issues.

That will be no simple task, but it’s more promising with Rumsfeld out of the picture.