Finally, comeuppance.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: George W. Bush - Column

November 7 gave President Bush a meal of comeuppance. Finally! After six years of ruling with Tory arrogance and terminal recklessness, Bush got the rebuke he so sorely deserved.

It is he who must own responsibility for the monumental changes in the Capitol, because when voters went to the polls, they did so with a purpose: to slap him in the face.

Exit polls showed that 60 percent of the voters were angry or dissatisfied with his Administration. Almost the same amount disapproved of the Iraq War, with 41 percent strongly disapproving.

The voters also went after any Republicans tainted by the myriad scandals that attach themselves to those who consume too much power too quickly. A whopping 74 percent said that a concern about corruption was either extremely important or very important to them.

As hard as Bush and Karl Rove tried to make the issue about how untrustworthy the Democrats are, the voters were willing to take a chance in hopes for a change. This time, as opposed to 2004, the dirty depiction of Democrats as coddlers of terrorists did not sell. Bush and Rove went to that putrid well once too often. The Rove style (sleaze) and the Rove strategy (get out the far right) failed. Take "genius" off his business card.

November 7 was a victory for progressives all the way around. Most notably, Sherrod Brown's defeat of Mike DeWine in Ohio demonstrated the power of the fair trade issue, and Bernie Sanders's triumph in Vermont, making him the first avowed socialist in the U.S. Senate, affirmed the Wellstone style of grassroots organizing.

Progressives won on many statewide referendums, which should embolden the ranks. Arizona became the first state to turn down the gay marriage ban. South Dakotans defeated a crude abortion ban. The people of Missouri approved embryonic stem-cell research, an issue that was a winner elsewhere across the country for progressives. And in the six states--Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio--where raising the minimum wage was on the ballot, it passed in every one. It's not just the rightwing that knows how to use referendums anymore.

Now Bush has a choice. He can continue in his heedless ways, or he can make good on his long-ago promise to be a uniter, not a divider. Don't hold you breath on that one. Though he has finally cashiered Donald Rumsfeld, chances are that Bush will follow Dick Cheney's lead again, and disregard the wishes of the people.

Cheney revealed the full length of his...