The GOP edge grows wider

Now, more than in 2000, one-party rule is the name of the game. For the first time since the 1920s, the Republican Party has won control of the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives in consecutive elections.

And even though the margin of victory for each remains narrow, it grew in all three, signaling profound implications for governance in America over the next four years. Even when George W. Bush won the presidency in 2000 without winning the popular vote, he plowed ahead with a bold agenda. Expect nothing different in a second term, analysts say.

"Just think of last time," says George Edwards III, a presidential scholar at Texas A & M. "He didn't hesitate, he didn't try to govern from the center, and won't do it this time."

Bush-watchers expect a period of conciliatory talk, in which the president speaks of the need to heal the nation's deep partisan divide and come together for the national good at a time of war abroad and threat to security at home. But the center in American politics is an ever-lonelier place; witness the defeat or retirement of many of the remaining conservative Democrats in the House and Senate. If Bush has learned anything from the last four years, it is that he can play hardball and win. The defeat of the Democrats' Senate leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, is the icing on Tuesday's GOP sweep - and exacerbates the Democratic Party's disarray.

Historically, second presidential terms are usually not as successful as first terms, when it comes to passing major new programs. Second terms are usually about completing unfinished business - and in Bush's case, the plate is full. The Iraq war remains front and center. As Bush enters his second term in January, Iraq will be holding elections, a crucial test of that nation's ability to transform itself into a functioning, self-governing nation.

On the domestic agenda, expect "tax cuts as far as the eye can see," says Marshall Wittmann, a former Republican activist and now a senior fellow at the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. "The only constraint that Bush has at this moment is the deficit, but that doesn't seem to have stopped him in the past."

More specifically, Bush could move to make permanent the elimination of the estate tax and institute broader tax reform, making the rate system "flatter." Other legislation that was bottled up in the first term, such as the energy and highway bills, will likely move. One big unfinished agenda item from Bush's first term is reform of Social Security, specifically the establishment of private accounts. Bush and the Republicans can also be expected to defund discretionary programs, limiting the Democrats' ability to provide money for new social programs.

But even as Democrats are licking their wounds from an Election Day with few bright moments, they can take some solace in looking ahead to a second Bush term in which the buck firmly stops at the GOP's front door. The Republicans will now be even more firmly in charge than they were during the last four years (which included a period of Democratic control in the Senate); Bush's high-wire act in Iraq contains a big risk of public disillusionment.

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