A NEW ADMINSTRATION AND A NEW CONGRESS

The Executive Branch

President George W. Bush, Republican, was inaugurated on January 20, 2001.

The press and we refer to him as ‘Dubya’. Bush was sworn in as President by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, William Rehnquist.

He chose as his running mate Dick Cheney, who is our current Vice-President.

Prominent Member of Mr. Bush’s Cabinet

Secretary of State Colin Powell was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 20, 2001.

He is the first African-American Secretary of State in U. S. history.

A Divided Congress

Of the 100 U.S. senators in Congress, there are now 50 Republican U.S. Senators and 50 Democratic U.S. Senators.

In case of a tie in the U.S. Senate, that tie can be decided by the person who presides over the Senate. That person is the vice-president of the United States. Our current vice-president, who is Republican, Dick Cheney can cast the deciding vote. So we are correct in saying that the G.O.P*, the nickname of the Republicans, really has the majority in the U.S. Senate.

*GOP stands for the Grand Old Party.

The Democratic Party has the distinction in history that its junior senator from the state of New York, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is the first wife of a U.S president to be elected to the United States Congress.

Though vice-presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman was not elected to office, he still was re-elected as Senator from the state of Connecticut. His re-election as U.S. Senator guaranteed that the U.S. Senate would be divided by the equal number of senators from each party.