Dave Astor
Editor & Publisher
Wednesday, November 8, 2006

NEW YORK Newspaper commentators, including conservatives, told E&P today that Republicans deserved to lose some of their power and that there can be positive aspects to governmental change.

"Democrats won because Republicans ran out of gas, ran out of steam, and lost their vision. They became what they overthrew in 1994," said Cal Thomas, whose conservative Tribune Media Services (TMS) column runs in nearly 600 newspapers.

"It's never good when one party controls all branches of the government," added Kathleen Parker, who does her conservative-leaning column for about 350 papers via the Washington Post Writers Group.

Leonard Pitts Jr. told E&P that he and his wife sang "ding-dong, the witch is dead" (from "The Wizard of Oz") after hearing about the election results and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation. "But that's not an endorsement of the Democrats," added the centrist/liberal columnist for The Miami Herald and TMS, explaining that he thinks yesterday's vote was more anti-Republican than pro-Democrat.

National Society of Newspaper Columnists President Mike Argento -- who writes for the York (Pa.) Daily Record -- said the desire of many voters "can be summed up in two words: adult supervision! People wanted someone to keep an eye on the Bush administration and what it's doing."

Association of American Editorial Cartoonists President Rob Rogers -- who does his often-liberal cartoons for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and United Media -- said his initial reaction to yesterday's results was "what the hell took voters so long? This should have happened no later than 2004."

Now that it has happened, what might the next two years look like with Democrats and Republicans each having a share of power?

"I suspect it's going to get quite messy," said Parker. "The Democrats claim they'll be bipartisan and centrist, but once they get in power they'll act like people in power." (She said the maxim "absolute power corrupts absolutely" applies to both Democrats and Republicans.)

Parker added: "The Democrats will lose some of their luster after they've held power for a while. If Republicans had remained in complete power, they would have definitely lost the presidency in 2008." So, she said, yesterday's results may ultimately be good for Republicans.

"I hope the political climate will be a search for common ground, but I doubt it," said Thomas, when asked about the next two years. "There are too many partisans in each party and Hillary Clinton wants to be president in 2008. That will drive the Republicans more than any other issue."

Pitts said he fears the next two years will be "acrimonious" for reasons such as the possible desire on the part of some Democrats for "payback."

Rogers noted that Democrats "will have to do a lot of cleaning up of the Republican messes," leaving them less time to make progress on other issues that could help them in 2008. "I'd like to see the Democrats have enough of a vision and enough of a plan to get some stuff done," he said.

In an ideal world, what would Pitts like to see happen between now and 2008? "I'd like to see politicians of both parties work for the interests of the people rather than for partisan interests," replied the 2004 Pulitzer Prize winner for commentary. "I'd like this [yesterday's] election to be a wake-up call for Republicans. And I'd like Democrats to realize that they didn't win, but that the Republicans lost."

Several commentators also said governmental change and strife can make things more interesting for columnists and cartoonists.

"As a columnist, I hope the next two years will be as entertaining as the past few years have been," said Argento, who found plenty of column fodder with people such as just-ousted Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). "But as an American, I hope the Democrats and the GOP find a way to work together to solve some huge, huge problems. I always hope for the best and expect the worst."