Gates is a member of the bipartisan commission that has been studying the Iraq campaign with the possibility of charting a new direction.

That commission is headed by James A. Baker, Secretary of State and a top adviser to the first President Bush.

Rumsfeld’s resignation comes after the Democrats picked up 28 seats in the House but the fate of the Senate remained in doubt as races for Republican-held seats in Montana and Virginia remained too close to call. Democrats would need both seats to win control of the Senate as well.

In Montana, Senator Conrad Burns, a Republican, was trailing Jon Tester, a Democrat, by a narrow margin. The race in Virginia — between another Republican incumbent, Senator George Allen, and Jim Webb, his Democratic challenger — was so close that some officials said it would have to be resolved by a recount. That prospect could mean prolonged uncertainty over control of the Senate, since a recount can be requested only after the results are officially certified on November 27, according to the state board of elections.

But the Democrats’ victory in the House — overcoming a legendarily efficient White House political machine — represented a dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of the party and signalled a sea change in the political dynamics in Washington after a dozen years in which Republicans controlled Congress for all but a brief period.

No less significant for the long-term political fortunes of their party, Democrats were winning governors’ seats across the country — notably in Ohio, a state that has been at the centre of the past two presidential elections. By early this morning, Democrats had knocked off Republican incumbents from New Hampshire to Florida.

... contd.