On last week’s Saturday Night Live they started off Weekend Update with the joke, “In an ironic turn of events, Iraq forced a regime change on the United States.”

This, among many other jokes, were flown around after Tuesday to make fun of Republicans and the “thumpin'” they took.

While I do find most of the jokes absolutely hilarious, there is one aspect of last week that was very interesting – Rumsfeld was asked to resign by President Bush.

Throughout the past year, Bush’s approval ratings have declined steadily, Rumsfeld’s approval ratings have plummeted downhill and the approval ratings for the war in Iraq have hit new lows.

Newspapers across the nation have called for Rumsfeld to resign. Senators and congresspersons have asked him to step down. But most importantly, the situation has gotten worse in Iraq, with last October being one of the deadliest months since 2003.

Bush has said throughout the year that he doesn’t listen to polls, and he wouldn’t let them change the direction the U.S. was headed in Iraq.

Even the week before the election, Bush said he had full confidence in Cheney and Rumsfeld and that they will be with him through 2008.

I hope Nancy Pelosi, who will likely be the first woman speaker of the house, handed Bush the finest pair of flip-flops she could find this week when Bush said Rumsfeld was leaving.

By asking Rumsfeld to resign Bush proves there is no strategy whatsoever. If Bush really planned to “stay the course,” (really, let’s be honest with ourselves, he didn’t drop the phrase), he wouldn’t have given in to the American people and Rumsfeld would still be in office. Afterall, the American people have been speaking for the past year in polls and to our newspapers, and Bush has told us those polls (the American voice) don’t matter.

I also found it ironic that everyone this week was saying, “Well, the American people have spoken,” because we’ve been speaking now for quite some time. Apparently those scientific polls just aren’t good enough.

The American people shouldn’t have to wait every two years to “speak.” If that’s the case, democracy will essentially fail. We elect people to go to Washington and to continue a line of communication with us in order to get things done.

Jim Ryun proved it’s not about going to Washington, buying fancy houses from Jack Abramoff and then coming back every two years to see if the people of the 2nd district thought you did a good job.

This is a sign to all politicians that if you go to Washington and turn off the hearing aid, you won’t be going back.