Wheeeee!

Well its a rare day when I can look at the newspaper and smile. I have to admit I enjoyed reading the stories today about the Democrats taking back Congress. Even better was Tom Delay's seat (eventually) going to a Democrat. And the sugar on top was the first female speaker of the house.

I know that as a Canadian my interest in American politics is a little extreme but one things Canadians understand early on is that events in the US always eventually impact Canada. I was probably the only teenager I knew that watched the Iran Contra Congressional hearings as much as possible. I think I asked my mom if we could get C-SPAN from our cable company. This was before CNN ever existed so I had to piece together my information from multiple channels.

So I find it interesting that Robert Gates, who was the CIA Deputy Director under George Bush Senior is now Bush's defense secretary nominee replacing Donald Rumsfield who "resigned" today. Gates played a minor role in the Iran-Contra scandal but would have had some knowledge of the inner CIA workings. This role is what prevented him from being successfully nominated as CIA Director by Bush Senior.

Plus ca change, plus rest la meme.