Now what?

With the concession of Sen. George Webb, R-Va., yesterday, the Democrats now hold the majority in both houses of Congress.

There are calls for punishment and impeachment of George W. Bush by the party's left-wing warriors who've spent the last six years in the grass keeping the faithful alive and hopeful.

Meanwhile, the future Speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Ca., has promised to work with the Bush White House and that impeachment is "off the table."

But the administration isn't waiting to see if this make-nice attitude is real or rhetorical. They are pushing for legislation to legitimize the NSA wire-tap-without-a-warrant program and for the recess of Ambassador John Bolton to be permanent.

It seems a betrayal to those truly faithful Democrats who have kept track of every offense against the Constitution: an insult to each grass-roots organizer and volunteer who spent countless hours working to get people to see beyond fear.

And the pundits and pontificators of the "safety-first" right aren't making nice. Their rhetoric is completely apocalyptic. A Fox News anchor wondered wistfully if Donald Rumsfeld's resignation caused cheering in Afghani caves and in Iraqi insurgent cells, as though a victory for the Democrats is a victory for Osama.

The troops on the ground in Iraq don't seem to care who is leading the Pentagon, it doesn't make them any less vulnerable, any more bomb or bulletproof.

There will be no impeachment, no repealing of the Patriot Act. The Democrats will go out of the way to prove how cooperative they can be, how bipartisan. They will compromise with the GOP and give further ground. The troops will likely be in Iraq until the 2008 elections, dying for a policy that never should have been.

The election's winners don't see the vote as a mandate for restoring the Constitution or bringing home the troops. They don't see the elections as a call for diplomacy and international cooperation. They don't view them as a call for responsible environmental and energy policies. They don't hear the cry for reversing an economy that punishes the poor. Instead they see them as an opportunity to run conferences and committees; to get back to the lobbyist troughs.

The groups and individuals that have suffered so greatly under the conservative control, the ones who worked so hard to make the system better will be left bitter and asking, "Now what?"