Now, no offense to you my precious, but every time I ask this question I get these kind of answers. 

 Who voted? 

The intelligent people.

  NO really, who voted?

The teenage boys.

I just want to know.  Actually Hastert is from near where I live and my friend's mother-in-law is "buddy buddy" with him.  He was invited to her campaign dinner (she's on the county board or something) and he came with secret service and stayed for 10 minutes tops.  It was pretty funny to see.

I'll try Leo's Girl. The Speaker of the House goes to the party with the majority of representatives. Now, with the Dems holding more seats -it is their choice of who gets the post. Now there may be some in fighting to determine who that person among the Dems will be. The Dems will vote for the Speaker position. Nancy Pelosi is the favorite to get the spot from her service as a leader of the Dems when they were the minority. Hope this helps.

The Republican Speaker is out automatically because the Reps are now the minority party. This change officially takes place as of early January-i think.

and to add on to what Ray said - the minority party will select their Minority Leader. Hastert is not going to run for the Minority Leader position so you will see both REpublicans and Democrats choosing their new leaders in the Congress. The Democrats will have the Speaker of the House position who will also be the Majority Leader (for the Dems). And the GOP will have a Minority Leader.

There's also a Majority and Minority Whip that helps to "whip" congressional leaders to vote certain ways. 

Jordan .

This is great!  Thanks.  It's big news around here with Hastert not being Speaker anymore and all the papers say is he is no longer speaker and I'm thinking, why?? Don't worry, though, I start school in January and I will be so educated it will hurt.  Then I can debate with the big boys (and girls).

I think this was kind of a nice thread to start in case there are people out there who would like to talk about politics, but aren't certain on some of the way things are run. 

Good thread!

Could someone explain to me the functions of the houses and how people get elected to each house?

There's two Congressional chambers: The House of Representatives (we call it the House) and the The Senate.

Way back when our forefathers were trying to figure this thing out, they were debating about how the legislative body would work. They wanted a parliment but they couldn't agree with HOW to implement. The big states wanted something like the House (the southern big states also wanted to count a full slave as one and the North wanted to not count them at all, so they compromised with some fraction that I forget now - I think 3/8), and the small states wanted something like the Senate. So out of that came two Chambers of Congress - the House and Senate.

The house has something like 438 seats (or really close to that). Each seat belongs to a state. These seats are divided up by the population of the state. For example - California has over 50 I think. Texas is in the 30s I believe. They are voted in every two years and every two years EVERY SINGLE SEAT in the House is up for grabs. The House is considered to be the closest group of politicians to Americans. They really should be the true voice of Americans for the most part, and they are most suspectible to problems -- that's why you can have 40 and 30 seat flips every 2 years.

The Senate is a different beast. For about half of this country's existance, the Senate was determined by each State's Legislative body. That body would vote in two senators to represent that state. It was only an amendment change in the Constitituion that put the voting of the Senate to the American people. Senators are up for election every 6 years but it's on a cylce. So this year, some states were up for grabs, in two years, a different set of states is up for grabs and so on through all 50. The key is that the Senator's term is 6 years. The Senate is also viewed as the more "proper" and traditional of the Chambers. The House back in the 1800s was full of a bunch of fun stuff - people screaming, hollering, there was even a fight on teh floor once. I miss those days. :)

Both Chambers do roughly the same thing but each chamber has different Constitutional matters. For example, the House because it is closer to the people get to decide things that the Senate doesn't get. I won't bore you with the details except for one - if both the Pres and VP die at the same time (highly unlikely), the Speaker of the House is moved into the Presidency even if that person is a different political party. So if Cheney and Bush die on January 31, 2006 due to a crazed Muslim terrorist, Democrat Peolsi becomes the Prez.

When they make laws, the Chambers have to also compromise. They each make their own bills, pass them within each other, and then they have to come together and compromise on the final version. Then both chambers have to vote on the bill AGAIN. Once both Chambers agree with the bill, then it goes to the President for signing (or veto).

If the Pres vetos the bill, it returns back to the Congress, and Congress can overturn his veto with 2/3 majority vote in both chambers.

That's the basic overview, but there's lots more that both do and what the Constitution offers both chambers. One thing to always remember, CONGRESS ULTIMATELY CONTROLS THE MONEY!!!!! So when spending is up or down, it's usually because of Congress, more than it is the President (but he does have something to do with it too). Each time Bush needed more money for Iraq, he would go to Congress and ask for it. Congress can take away any monies from the Executive Branch (President) and it will be impossible for him to do things. Democrats used this scam against Reagan in the 80s, and Bush 41 to a certain extent. They increased spending in the Congress with their own bills, pushed for the President to sign it, and then later blamed him for the increased spending. Ultimately, Congress has control of money. Some may remember in the 90s that the govt closed down for a few days because Newt's Congress and Clinton couldn't decied on economic policies. Democrats go around today congratulating themselves for the less spending in the 90s, etc but it was ultimately the GOP who decreased spending (which is one reason why the govt was closed because Clinton kept fighting Congress - and vice-versa - to be fair).

Note - I may have made some small errors above - so someone can correct me if you know differently. That last paragraph is mostly opinion (except for Congress controlling the dollars) but the rest of everything is factual.

Next question, or a followup to the above...

Jordan .

KS - Senators are Brownback and Roberts (both Republicans) and my Representative in my district in the House is Dennis Moore (Dem) who won on Tues by 30 points.

Jordan .

The Stalwarts were a radical, splinter group of thugs and trouble makers who had their roots going back to the Civil War. Right up to the 1900's they intimidated other political groups. You could easily compare them to the KKK. A group of fascists, hoodlums who resented the aftermath of the Civil War and the changes it made on America. A bunch of real scumbags !!

May they rest in eternal hell.  ( If you buy into that concept. )