It looks like Nancy Pelosi is going to be the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, the most powerful position in Congress and the third most powerful politician in the country. Does this mean San Francisco values are going to infect our country at large? Not as likely as you might think. Many of the newly elected Democrats are conservative Democrats, and they are not likely to follow her lead on every issue, especially with the more liberal positions she is expected to take.

And there is also the Joe Lieberman factor -- strangely enough, he is poised to be one of the most important figures on Capitol Hill. His voting record is quite liberal/socialist, but it was his support for the Iraq war plan that got him passed over by his own party. Now unbound as the only Independent in the Senate, he is freed to follow his conscience on many issues without being rebuked by his own party, as he was not elected as a Democrat. Of course, it's likely he will vote with the Democrats on most issues, but he obviously hadn't toed the party line as a Democrat, especially on foreign policy and national security. His potential as a swing factor may likely make him one of the most watched figures in the Senate.

As for pulling the troops out of the Iraq war, which most certainly will be on Nancy Pelosi's agenda in the House, that's also not as likely as one might think. Kenneth R. Timmerman has a pretty good piece in Front Page Magazine today about how it might be hard to achieve this. Here's a quote:

"Democrats will simply be unable to deliver on the main campaign promise, because 1) they do not have the power to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq, and 2) because any effort to defund the U.S. war effort would be political suicide.

Read the whole thing.

One additional thing to think about in all this Democrat self-congratulation is that the margin of Democratic victory was hardly a landslide. The Democrats barely have a majority in the Senate, and the margin of victory in the House is close to the average number of seats historically lost by an incumbent President's party in the 6th year of the President's term in wartime. Ann Coulter has some numbers in her column this week breaking out some of these Congressional turnovers. With margins such as this, the House may send a lot of bills up the hill, but most will not make it through a veto and further voting. I would expect George Bush's dusty veto stamp to see much more light. Given this, Democrats in Congress are likely to pursue doable bipartisan legislation so as not appear as a "do nothing" Congress in 2008.

So, business as usual? Of course not -- Congress is now in the hands of Democrats, and they will impose a new tone on Washington. Thankfully that doesn't appear to mean San Francisco values for the rest of us.