An unusual alignment of the political stars has left supporters of Democrats dazed in their enormous victory - and changes. As the dust clears and reality sets in, we are overwhelmed by the many differences that we have yet to realize.

In the background of this election season, a monumental shift took place. The likelihood that another Supreme Court justice will be appointed by Bush is very high. With a new Democratic Senate, an important oversight layer has been added to protect the court from fundamentalist judges.

If a vacancy on the Supreme Court should occur in the near future, the Senate confirmation battle will be explosive. The ramifications will surely galvanize a certain segment of the electorate for the 08 elections. But, before the 06 election, there was no way to prevent a fundamentalist ideologue judge from being appointed save a politically unsavory filibuster.

It's interesting that discussing the Supreme Court never came up during the 06 election. The reason the familiar Republican meme of activist judges failed to materialize is twofold:

1. The Democrats made almost NO mention of the possibility of taking the Senate during the 06 campaign. The Republicans remained haughty in assuming they would keep the Senate. Neither party was keen on talking about the Senate turning over.

2. The Democrats received a political gift in the Foley scandal, because it immunized them from the dastardly "fear gays" theme. The revelations from a proud gay man revealing truths about Ted Haggard, the homosexual drug-addict minister that heads the Evangelical christian movement, also helped by muting the megaphone of the Evangelical movement. The environment prohibited Republicans from indulging in another favorite meme: the Liberal Activist Judges threat.

Few political prizes happen instantly, but this one did. Today, our US Supreme Court is a little safer from being taken over by Fundamentalist Judges.