338,000 people voted to assign 26 delegates or .6% of total delegates in play and captured the media spotlight for a week as the Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton steel cage match went another breathless round, while reddest of Republican states Mississippi, ignored the personal campaigning of Vice President Dick Cheney as the Democrat Travis Childers won a special election to Congress on Tuesday, helping his party to a third victory in recent months for seats long held in Republican hands. If you think Labour in the UK has it tough, imagine being a member of President Bush’s political party this year.

While most attention is on the Presidential race, the real battle for control of Congress sees the Republicans losing ground. Should the Democratic win 63 senate seats and 292 house seats; the Democrats will have a veto-proof majority and the ability to control the legislative agenda regardless of who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Even 60 seats would be a filibuster busting majority under Senate rules which would allow most bills to pass.

Last nights win puts the Dems at 236 House and 49 Senate seats with 2 Independent Senators (Leahy of Vermont and Lieberman of Connecticut) who usually side with the Democrats. While the political pundits are breathless over when Hillary will drop out, this is the bigger story and, of course, was hardly mentioned in the hoopla of last night’s West Virginia election results.

It was previously unthinkable that the Dems could win a net gain of 14 Senate seats and 56 in the House. The Senate number is a bit more difficult because only 1/3 of the seats are contested every two years, however, all 435 House seats are up for grabs every second year so this could be a landmark year.

The Childers seat had been in firm control of the Republicans since the 1994 Gingrich revolution saw Bill Clinton lose Democratic control of Congress his second year in office. Many look to that date as pivotal in the division of the country as Republicans saw their slim majority as a mandate and the middle ground disappeared in the USA.

Every other time one party controlled the White House and another Congress, men of great character and integrity (they were all men then) would come together for the broader good of the country. The Reagan revolution would not have been possible without Democrat Speaker ‘Tip’ O’Neill working to cobble solutions that both parties could stomach. Since 1994, gridlock and name calling have been the rule.

Now we have the unprecedented situation where the sitting Vice President is not in the race so neither party has built-in successor. Even though John McCain has won the most delegates to his  party’s convention in September, the candidacy of conservative Ron Paul could make for an interesting convention battle and floor fight as the right wing conservative plank of the party is very dissatisfied with McCain’s willingness to reach across the aisle.

This week über-conservative representative Bob Barr of California staked his claim to the Libertarian Party nomination and the betting is his presence will siphon off dissatisfied Republican votes much as Democratic votes could go to Ralph Nader.

And so as Hillary negotiates her way on to the ticket as VP and wants Barack Obama to help retire her $20 million dollar campaign debt (ironically thus placing money in the pocket of Mark Penn, the man whose 3 am attack ads nearly cost him the nomination), the show and story goes on and on and on and on…