KEY POINTS:
The shift in American politics to the Democrats looks likely to claim another victim, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton.
After Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation yesterday, Mr Bolton, a key ally of President George W. Bush, needs congressional support to stay in his post,
but yesterday a Democratic senator said his troubled nomination was "going nowhere".
Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, who is expected to chair the Senate foreign relations committee if Democratic control of the Senate is confirmed, said: "I never saw a real enthusiasm [for Bolton's nomination] on the Republican side to begin with. There's none on our side. John Bolton's going nowhere."
Mr Bolton, the controversial former Under-Secretary of State in charge of non-proliferation, was nominated by President Bush to be UN envoy in March last year.
But after his confirmation was blocked in the Republican-led Senate, Mr Bush made a recess appointment, which will last until the new Congress convenes in January.
Before voters cast their ballots, there was talk of Mr Bush re-submitting Mr Bolton's nomination.
Another possibility was appointing Mr Bolton to another US government job so he could still be paid but assigning him to work at the UN.
Senate Democratic aides said they did not know if such a move would be legal.
Mr Rumsfeld's resignation hours after the Democratic victory could presage major changes in US policy in Iraq.
The electoral defeat made Mr Rumsfeld's position all but untenable, given the criticism raining on him not only from the resurgent Democrats but also from senior members of the Republican Party.
But its timing was a shock - only days after Mr Bush had vowed to keep the Pentagon chief in place until the end of his term in January 2009.
White House aides said Mr Bush had been mulling the move for days but word of it emerged only moments before he appeared before the press to extend a hand of conciliation and co-operation to the Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi, who is set to become the first woman Speaker in US history.
Mr Rumsfeld's replacement is Robert Gates, a former CIA director and deputy national security adviser under Mr Bush's father.
Mr Gates is also a member of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group - led by the former Secretary of State James Baker, another retainer of the elder Bush - which is about to issue keenly awaited recommendations on how to solve the crisis.
Given the magnitude of the mid-term defeat, Mr Bush was in remarkably feisty form yesterday, although admitting the outcome had been a "thumping" for his party - and indirectly for himself, even though his name had not been on the ballot.
Ms Pelosi offered few clues to what changes Democrats would seek in the conduct of the Iraq war.
- INDEPENDENT