Republicans wrest full Congress reins

President Barack Obama faced a political rebuke and a curb on his policy ambitions yesterday after Republicans seized control of the US Senate and captured their biggest majority in the House of Representatives since Harry Truman's presidency more than 60 years ago.

Tuesday's midterm elections gave Republicans control of both houses of Congress for the first time since elections in 2006. Obama, who has lurched from crisis to crisis and whose unpopularity made him unwelcome to many fellow Democrats running for office, was scheduled for a news conference later.

He invited Democratic and Republican leaders of Congress to the White House tomorrow to take stock of the new political landscape.

It was "a pretty ugly night" for Democrats, said Representative Steve Israel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, speaking on MSNBC.

When the new Congress convenes in January, Republicans will be armed with their biggest majority in the House since the Democrat Truman's first term in the late 1940s. With some 18 seats yet to be decided, NBC News projected Republicans would win at least 244 seats in the 435-seat chamber.

Republicans needed six seats to win control of the 100-member Senate. But Republican candidates had picked up seven Democratic seats: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Montana, North Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia. Voting held for 36 seats.

Democrats had dominated Republicans in the Senate, 53-45 with two independents, going into the election but Republicans will now outnumber them 52-45 with two independents. Louisiana's US Senate race will be decided in a Dec 6 runoff.

In the House, Republicans had held a 233-199 advantage before Tuesday's vote. NBC News projected they would hold at least 244 seats and as many as 249 seats.

Republicans also cleaned up in key governors' races, earning re-election in Florida, Wisconsin and Kansas and stunning Democrats by winning governorships in Democratic strongholds Maryland and Massachusetts.

The Republican takeover will force Obama to scale back his ambitions to either executive actions that do not require legislative approval, or items that might gain bipartisan support, such as trade agreements and tax reform.

It also will test his ability to compromise with newly empowered political opponents who have been resisting his legislative agenda since he was first elected in 2008. Americans elected him to a second and final four-year term in 2012.

The extent of the rout will also be a cause for concern for Hillary Clinton, the heir-apparent for the Democratic presidential nomination, who, along with her husband, former president Bill Clinton, stumped for several of the party's Senate candidates who lost badly, reported The Guardian.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a possible presidential candidate in 2016 who campaigned for fellow Republicans around the country, said the Senate results put the burden on Obama.

"We need to get things done ... and put things on the president's desk and make the president make some decisions," Christie said on "CBS This Morning." He cited tax reform, a national energy policy and job stimulation as pressing needs.

Before the election results, the White House had signaled no major changes. Officials said Obama would seek common ground with Congress in such areas as trade and infrastructure.

A one-term senator before he became president, Obama has often been faulted for not developing closer relations with lawmakers.

The last time Republicans controlled both houses of Congress under a Democratic president was 1995-97 during Bill Clinton's administration.

The party of an incumbent president historically fares badly in elections in his second term, and every president since Ronald Reagan has left office with the opposition controlling Congress.

Once the euphoria of their victory ebbs, Republicans will be under pressure to show Americans they are capable of governing after drawing scorn a year ago for shutting down the government in a budget fight. That will be a factor in their ambitions to take back the White House in 2016.