Washington, DC-Dulles to Phoenix, AZ

Wednesday, November 8, 2006 7:00 PM EST

I am on United Flight 953. Seat 9C – Economy Plus seating! Having the extra leg room in Economy Plus does make a difference. It’s a much more civilized way to travel.

I arrived at Dulles around 3 PM. The check in lines were long for everyone, General Members as well as Elites. The wait time for General Members to check-in their bags and get their boarding passes was 45 minutes. But only to about 10 minutes for me to get my boarding pass in the Elite line.

I expected the security lines to be long as well. Surprisingly, they were relatively short. Granted, it didn’t matter as I used the Premier security line and got right through. Traveling with status makes a big difference.

I am heading to Phoenix for another conference. I will be participating on a panel discussion. The conference is being held at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass. Trip Advisor reviews rate the hotel at 4.5 stars, which is nearly perfect. All the reviews have been very positive. The photos make the resort look beautiful. Alas, I won’t be staying there. The hotel is undergoing renovations due to mold problems and not enough rooms are available.

So I will be staying at the Buttes, a Marriott Resort in Tempe, AZ. The Buttes also received high reviews, although not as high as the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass.

The Day After
Yesterday, November 7, 2006, was Election Day. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 33 seats in the Senate were up for grabs. In early October, the polls began to indicate the Democrats would take the majority in the House and had an outside shot at taking the majority in the Senate as well.

The polls proved accurate last night. The Democrats captured the majority in the House, retaining every incumbent seat, and picking up a number of hotly contested seats and open seats. That’s quite an impressive feat.

Political analysts expected the Democrats to win three Senate seats from Republican incumbents – needing a total of six seats to win an outright majority. As of this writing, the Democrats have picked up five seats, and appear to be on the verge of picking up a sixth seat and capturing the majority. Senator George Allen of Virginia is trailing his opponent, James Webb, by roughly 8,000 votes out of over 2 million cast.

The last time the majority changed hands in both the House and the Senate, 4,000 Hill staffers found themselves out of jobs. We will have to wait and see what happens this time around.

I hope the Democrats and Republicans will work together and move the country forward. It’s time to put the blame aside and do what is in the best interests of the country.