Our long national nightmare is over

When Gerald Ford uttered those words, he was referring to the nightmare that was the Nixon Administration and the scandals it had wrought. I am cribbing Ford here because that is precisely how I feel now that the 110th Congress has been sworn in and the Democrats have taken the reigns. The Gingrich Revolution is officially dead, as is single party rule. GWB is quite firmly ensconced as the lamest of ducks. Progressives can, once again, step in and staunch the bleeding of the body politic.

To that end, Pelosi and Reid have laid out an extensive and fairly impressive agenda for the first 100 hours and have agreed to essentially freeze out the Republicans in these opening days to guarantee passage. Plenty of Republicans will bitch out their exclusion but I say fuck them. This is exactly the way they behaved for most of the past decade and turnabout is fair play. In fact, I think it is high time that the Democrats take their pound of flesh. Revenge is an excellent deterrent to future misdeeds.

With a hat tip to AmericaBlog, I see that Charlie Rangel, whom I love, is getting into that spirit.

Rep. Charles Rangel has evicted Vice President Dick Cheney from his office in the Capitol, and the Harlem heavyweight is moving into the prime digs today, The Post has learned.

Gilded letters were freshly painted atop the office door yesterday proclaiming "Ways and Means Committee" - confirming that the office now belongs to Rangel, the House panel's new chairman.Sources said Cheney's and his staff's belongings were removed over the holidays.

The new digs give Rangel some of the choicest and most politically central real estate in all of Washington - as well as a measure of sweet revenge.

Good on you Charlie. Give ‘em hell.