Letters: Dec. 11, 2006

Ascendency of the Centrists?

Our reporting on the Republicans' loss of Congress took a look at what the triumph of moderates and pragmatists will mean for domestic and foreign policy. Many readers were eager to bid good riddance to scandals and a faltering war strategy, while others remained wary or skeptical of any bipartisan gain

Re "Reaching for the Center" [NOV. 20]: The American people used the power of the vote to boot the corrupt, ideologically blinkered, full-of-themselves Republicans out of their congressional majorities. Our Founding Fathers were skeptical of the notion that seemingly virtuous politicians would always govern wisely. The founders knew from historical experience that even the most righteous can succumb to the temptations that power brings.

TROY LEE ZUKOWSKI Portage, Mich.

The election results must have been an accountability moment for the President, even though his sense of accountability is momentary at best.

JIM GALLAGHER Petaluma, Calif.

The election did not bring an overwhelming number of Democrats into the House, and they hold only a one-vote majority in the Senate, so it was not "a robust whupping," as Joe Klein so poignantly declared. Democrats should celebrate while they can, since I trust that those who should rightfully govern this country will be back soon.

JEAN SEMBER Hawthorne, N.J.

The Republican-led Congress has acted like a latter-day Emperor Nero, fiddling with the issues of same-sex marriage, abortion and flag burning while the Middle East is a conflagration, the global climate overheats and our health-care system crashes and burns. The slim majority that the Democrats have in both houses of Congress as a result of the midterm elections is not a mandate but a challenge to both major parties to work cooperatively to solve the nation's foreign and domestic problems.

KIRK D. GULDEN Wilkesboro, N.C.

It's unlikely the Democratic leadership will move toward the center. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean would need the Hubble telescope to even see the center.

CHET WHITNEY Sioux Falls, S.D.

The Democrats won majorities in both the House and Senate, but with slim margins. The Republicans are still in pretty good shape. A single election should not make Republicans too downcast or Democrats too gleeful.

CLOYD GATRELL Carlisle, Pa.

I believe the midterm elections may finally swing the pendulum back from President Ronald Reagan's conservative revolution. But it took the needlessly spilled blood of too many young Americans to do it. Tragically, Reagan's "Morning in America" has become mourning in America.

RUSSELL KUSSMAN Los Angeles

Klein quoted an administration official who referred to the failure of Bush's Iraq policy as "a Mick Jagger moment...You can't always get what you want." Now we will find out if the President recognizes that he has to abandon his six-year Under My Thumb approach to dealing with Congress.

JAY P. MAILLE Pleasanton, Calif.

Covering the Results