THE mid-term blues could not be more doleful for George W Bush and the Republicans. The Democrats have taken control of the House of Representatives and are on the brink of winning the Senate. When it happens, Congress, the legislative branch of the US government, will be in Democrat hands for the first time in 12 years.

Anticipating this, House Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi, poised to be the highest-ranking woman in American politics and third in line for the presidency as the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, said she would be looking for solutions, not scalps, on the decisive factor in the mid-term elections: Iraq. But a scalp was what she got, and a spectacular one at that, when Donald Rumsfeld resigned last night as Defence Secretary. This had not been unexpected. Many Americans had demanded his head as punishment for the Iraq debacle. It came on a platter on the back of election results described by MrBush as a "thumpin' " for his administration.

Having also lost one of his most trusted advisers and closest friends, he might well have gone to bed last night mangling the blues. But there is little cause to feel sympathy for the embattled President. For a start, Mr Rumsfeld's departure is welcome. Hubris can exact a heavy toll. The Defence Secretary has paid the ultimate price for overweening arrogance in foreign policy. He is seen as the architect of the Iraq war, justifying it on grounds that did not exist (WMD), and its chaotic aftermath. Iraq has become everything he suggested it would not be four years ago, when he boasted that shock and awe would not only win the war but also the peace. Yet he left American troops as an ill-prepared army of occupation, with no plans to stabilise the country. Abu Ghraib occurred on his watch and he should have offered to resign, or been sacked, at the time.

Whether the strategy will change, or can be changed, under Robert Gates, the new Defence Secretary, is at present imponderable. Mr Bush will have to take greater account of the newlyempowered Democrats and their position on Iraq (whatever it is). Policy might become clearerwhen the Iraq Study Group reports, shortly. What is certain is that a vulnerable Mr Bush is in a new situation, as are America and the wider world. From a global perspective, it has to be a more promising situation than before the mid-terms.