Happy New Year

Good-bye 2005 and welcome 2006! I hope y'all had a very happy holiday season and are now rested and ready to begin the festivities of what will be a very exciting political year. Since this is my first blog report of the New Year, I thought I would devote this posting to making political predictions for the year.

So here it goes....

1. Democrats will pick up three seats in the United States Senate. Look for Democratic victories in currently held Republican seats in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.

2. Democrats will see a net gain of two seats in the United States House of Representatives.

3. Republican Congressman Robin Hayes of North Carolina will be defeated in his bid for re-election.

4. Florida Governor Jeb Bush will be the Republican nominee for the United States Senate in Florida, but will lose to incumbent Senator Bill Nelson.

5. North Carolina Democrats will remain in control of the House and Senate in the NC General Assembly.

6. Outgoing Virginia Governor Mark Warner will surface as the alternative to Senator Hillary Clinton in the 2008 race for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

7. Senator John Kerry will announce he will not seek re-election to the Senate from Massachusetts and focus entirely on a second Presidential campaign.

8. Senator Joe Liebermann of Connecticut will replace Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense.

9. Karl Rove will not be indicted in the CIA leak case.

10. South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford will be re-elected by a slim margin.