Pic of the Day: A year after victory, Democrats are still hung over

This is one of my favorite political photos I have ever taken. It's not artsy. It's not attention-grabbing. It's not even good (a bit hazy). But it is telling.

A case of Yuengling beer, the drink of choice among Washingtonians, sits outside the Democratic minority staff office of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. It was taken at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on Nov. 8, 2006, the day after Democrats beat the Republicans for the majority in the House of Representatives.

The headline on a Washington Post photocopy taped to the door says, "Democrats Take House."

I remember that the Republicans I talked with that day were very pessimistic. I got to meet Dick Armey, the former House majority leader (the staff of Maine Sen. Susan Collins snubbed me for an interview, though). Armey and his Texas bravado put things a little more positively. But the headline I wrote for the story was, "House turns blue, Republicans, too."

With many of the Democrats' campaign promises still unfulfilled, especially the Iraq pullout, it seems their headache is still lingering after the night of drinking. "I don't approve of Congress," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in November. "We haven’t been effective in ending the war in Iraq." Of course, you could argue that the Republicans have been hiding the Aspirin from the Democrats by halting many of their measures. I'm not partisan, so that's for you to decide.

This is a photo you probably wouldn't see in The Washington Post or in most daily newspapers, but I tend to note the details. After all, this is The Offlede, where the downplayed is played up (or some other slogan ... vote on the right sidebar).