Rivera took his first shots at the GOP in the following tease:
Rivera: "They told all those immigrants whose blood, sweat and tears helped keep our nation running to go home. They fought against raising the minimum wage for citizens. They stunk up the place with corruption and made a mess of the war but times they are a changing. I'm Geraldo Rivera and I approve this message."
Finally Rivera closed the November 8th show with the following commentary:
Rivera: "The Democratic wave that washed over American politics last night washed away Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and swamped many Republicans who tried to use the issue of illegal immigration to scare people into voting for them. I am delighted to say that they got their butts kicked. What happened in Arizona is a good example. Big, blustery GOP Congressman J.D. Hayworth and conservative Republican candidate Randy Graf had basically adopted the hard line position advocated by vigilante groups like the Minute Men and in their campaigns had railed against our porous border with Mexico and urged no mercy for illegal immigrants. I'd like to believe that their defeat is a victory for those advocating comprehensive compassionate immigration reform. A survey yesterday suggested a strong link between the overwhelming participation in these rallies and how Hispanics voted. By becoming the ant-immigration party the GOP may have also turned the vast majority of that huge Hispanic voting bloc into Democrats for the foreseeable future."
Claire McCaskill: "The great state of Missouri has spoken!"
Rivera: "The election was also a victory for Senate candidates advocating for stem cell research like Missouri's Claire McCaskill who was propelled to victory when snot-nosed Rush Limbaugh made fun of Parkinson patient Michael J. Fox's symptoms."
McCaskill: "It has been a long time since our party really had something to celebrate."
Rivera: "And the election focused all of us on the war in Iraq, which 60 percent of the voters leaving the polls yesterday said they opposed. And hearing the message today the President tossed out the architect of the Iraq war, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld."
George W. Bush: "Secretary Rumsfeld and I agreed that the timing is right for new leadership at the Pentagon."
Rivera: "Now Democrats should turn their attention to the alleged war profiteers, companies like Halliburton who have billed the government for billions and reconstruction work in Iraq, allegedly without adequately accounting for where that fortune went. The new bosses should also continue to scour corruption from Congress. Ethical probes should also be aggressively pursued to root out the truth about Congressmen like Mark Foley and Jim Kolbe and the kids in the page program. And perhaps most importantly the incoming 110th Congress must also work in a bipartisan way finally to raise the national minimum wage. It has been a pathetic $5.15 an hour for almost 10 years. The price of everything else is almost doubled since then and in 2006 no family can survive on that. Mostly I want this new Congress to be honest, open-minded and fair. That's too much to ask. Is it?"
