TOKYO -- U.S. midterm congressional elections are pretty humdrum affairs that usually produce low voter turnouts. But this Nov. 7 vote is shaping up as the most exciting and important midterm election in modern American history.

The upcoming vote has generated extraordinary interest around the globe. Polls in Asia, Europe, and Latin America show the widely-expressed hope that American voters will deliver a stinging rebuke to the Bush administration and end its war in Iraq.

This week, a senior State Department official finally spoke the truth about administration policies in Iraq, calling them "arrogant and stupid." He later retracted his statement, but the damage was done.

Exhibits A & B: The increasingly out-of-touch Vice President Dick Cheney just assured listeners on a recent radio show that the catastrophic war he and the neoconservatives engineered in Iraq was going "remarkably well." And President George Bush commanded the powerless puppet government the U.S. installed in Baghdad to "get tough" with powerful Shia militias.

Panicked by the looming spectre of defeat in Iraq, Bush suddenly declared his cherished mantras -- "we won"t cut and run" and "stay the course" -- inoperative. The new party line for Republican apparatchiks is "flexible response."

Meanwhile, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq suggested more troops from North America were needed to control anarchic Baghdad. John McCain, the current Republican frontrunner for the 2008 presidential election, has been calling for doubling of U.S. troops in Iraq, which would mean reinstating the draft.

"Fudge and flee"?

But Bush"s new motto looks more likely to become "fudge and flee" as he scrambles for a face-saving way out. Things are so bad that the administration is pleading with "axis of evil" members Syria and Iran to help it out of the Iraq mess.

Wiser or more politically savvy Republicans are swiftly backing away from the increasingly unpopular president.

Today, however, Republicans, once the Grand Old Party of two of America"s greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower, have sunk to their lowest point in memory. Only 16% of Americans approve of the job the Republican-run Congress is doing.

The U.S. Constitution established Congress as America"s premier arm of government. Bush, Cheney, and their neocon allies used 9/11 to turn Congress into a rubber stamp, much like the old Supreme Soviet whose ranks were filled with corrupt non-entities.

Look at the embarrassing Republican leaders in Congress, the world"s greatest legislature:

The shambling Senate leader, Dennis Hastert, was a wrestling coach. The once feared House leader, Tom Delay, was a cockroach exterminator before going to Congress. He recently resigned under a barrage of accusations of wrongdoing. They were barely worthy of political office in Dogpatch, never mind Washington.

Both Republicans and Democrats are steeped in Washington"s endemic corruption and influence-peddling due to their constant need to raise campaign funds by kow-towing to special interests. Members of both parties voted like clapping seals for the Iraq war.

But Republicans took the lead in promoting and sustaining that totally unnecessary conflict, now estimated to likely cost upwards of $1 trillion before it is lost. They eagerly co-operated in the Bush/Cheney efforts to emasculate Congress, muzzle the media, create an all-powerful president, and undermine civil liberties and the U.S. constitution.

Senior Bush administration officials responsible for the Iraq disaster -- Cheney, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, and Colin Powell -- made fools of themselves before the world by chorusing a litany of grotesque lies that would have made old Kremlin boss Leonid Brezhnev blush crimson. If Democrats retake the Senate or House, their first act should be to open investigations of how America was misled into war.

In fact, it"s hard to think of another administration in modern history that has done more grave damage to U.S. interests and reputation abroad, or so grievously undermined the system of constitutional government at home. None of America"s foreign enemies have ever inflicted so much damage.

Politicians are all too rarely punished for their egregious misdeeds and dishonesty. But this Nov. 7, Americans will have a golden opportunity to deliver judgment on the politicians and officials who misled them and the nation.

Each and every Republican and every spineless Democrat who voted for the illegitimate war and for the monstrous deficit spending should be kicked out of office.

Basic rights

So, too, should every legislator that supported Bush"s shocking violations of the constitution such as wiretapping and spying on citizens, and overriding or dismissing laws made by Congress. All legislators who voted this month to ignore or violate the sacrosanct laws of the Geneva Convention and the basic right of habeas corpus, and who disgracefully voted to legalize torture, should be ousted.

American voters will hopefully ignore all the fearmongering they have been subjected to and remember the basic and most important tenet of democratic politics: "Throw the rascals out!"