All red on the night
Both Republicans and Democrats draw comfort from Labour's historic election win, writes Julian Borger in Washington
Julian Borger
Friday May 6, 2005
Guardian Unlimited
Karl Rove watched the early returns trickle in on a big screen at the British embassy last night, and then when the shape of result began to emerge, he donned a red rosette and walked away.
It was a suitably ambivalent gesture for George Bush's ever-present political mastermind. In the United States over recent years, the symbolism of the colour red has become the opposite of its meaning everywhere else in the world. It signifies conservative, patriotic, gun-owning, evangelical, Republicanism.
But the rosette was also a nod to Labour and Tony Blair, President Bush's best friend on the world stage.
The result was one that all sides could take some comfort from in Washington.
As President Bush prepared the start of a European tour this morning, the bottom line as seen from this side of the Atlantic was that his closest ally had won and retained a bigger majority than the margin currently enjoyed by the Republicans in Congress.
Meanwhile, the Republican's traditional allies, the Conservatives, made a step towards political relevance. In the long term, when Iraq is no longer the sole issue, the Republicans will be hoping for a Tory resurgence.
"Real Republicans will be looking at how Michael Howard does," said a conservative justice department official last night. "The White House still hates Howard, for some reason, mostly because of some inappropriate things he said about the war at some inopportune times. So they're happy about Blair but what they're not thinking about is that they'll get Gordon Brown."
By that same calculation, the Democrats could equally boast it was a good result for them. Their traditional Labour allies had held on to power but with such a reduced majority that Blair, the president's friend, is a lame duck bound to hand over power to Brown, who has remained far closer to the Democrats than the prime minister.
"For the Democrats, this is a win because it makes Gordon Brown prime minister down the line," said EJ Dionne, a liberal political commentator with the Washington Post.
Charlie Cook, a leading US political analyst was not so sure it would be seen that way on Capitol Hill. "If you ask most Democrats in Congress who Gordon Brown is, they're not going to know," he said.
"They're going to have mixed feelings about this, and for the same reason, I really couldn't tell you who the White House is really backing."
Among so many mixed opinions of the big picture, there were a few things Washington's political class could agree on. Several pundits felt there was something raw and viscerally democratic about the way, the father of a dead soldier could directly confront the prime minister at Sedgefield, and say his piece while the nation studied Mr Blair's face. It could never happen to the president.
There was also general accord that the BBC's election-night graphics outshone anything seen on American television. As Charlie Cook put it: "You can tell they're done by people who really love politics." |
