Well folks, as you have most likely heard, today was the transition to the 110th Congress of the United States of America. What is particularly interesting about this transition is that the Democrats are taking control of both the House and the Senate. I’d love to sit here and make doomsday predictions about how bad everything will be, but I feel safe enough that we will not have to. My reasoning is simple, and can be broken down into a number of simple points.

• The a large proportion of the Democrats who won seats previously held by Republicans are fairly moderate and not all that likely to support terribly liberal and leftist laws and programs.
• Although we have lost our majority, there are still a good many Republicans in both houses, enough that only a few democratic votes would have to ‘defect’ in order to prevent overly partisan legislation.
• President Bush may have only made one veto in the past, but I have a feeling we’ll see a lot more in the coming months and years. He may have a tendency not to satisfy the conservative base, but I have enough faith that he won’t allow the Democrats to destroy anything at the same time.
• The Democrats know that a lot of their support in the 2006 Election, especially in swing districts that had previously gone Republican, is due to moderate people who are fed up with the Republicans of the 109th Congress. Because of this they are going to have to avoid any radical policies and laws to have any real chance of keeping their majority in 2008.

With that and more in mind, I’d put the chances of the Democrats of making any real changes at about 20%, although I really don’t want to commit myself to that number. What I am fairly certain of, though, is that there is no way the ‘100 Hour Plan‘ will be enacted in 100 hours. While most of the 100 Hour Plan is actually pretty good and moderate, I just don’t think it will happen. I could be wrong, but I would be surprised.

To be honest, changes in Congressional rules and procedures aimed at greater accountability - regardless of the party sponsoring them - are something I would support with open arms. Hopefully, these rules will extend to the pork barrel projects that waste billions of taxpayer dollars every year. Repeal of tax credits for oil companies and the wealthy - although not something I’d support - are probably a good idea and will make a real dent in the deficit.

Besides marking a new Congress and a new majority, today marks a milestone in United States History. Shortly after the Democrats took power, Congresswomen Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, California took was elected Speaker of the House. Although I do not support her politics, I view this as an important advance for women’s rights and one step closer to ending affirmative action - I hope. Although I do not have a video of the vote and ceremony which followed, you can view a clip from FoxNews over at HotAir.com along with more information on the transition.

This post is getting to be a little long, but in closing let me say that I am looking forward to these next two years - not because I’m looking forward to the Democratic actions, but because I think this is going to be a great biennium for politics and political news.

Correction: There was a typo with this article, the incoming Congress is the 110th, not the 100th.