[US midterm elections] 2006 déjà vu… In the midst of the Middle East war, the ruling party reorganizes parliamentary power.

In this year's midterm elections, in which the Democratic Party, the opposition party in the United States, won a landslide victory by taking away the majority positions in both the Senate and House of Representatives and securing a majority of governors, the decisive defeat for the Republican Party was the 'Iran War'.

This war, which began early this year when U.S. President Donald Trump suddenly launched a full-scale military operation against Iran, raised the prices of energy such as gasoline and diesel in the U.S. and ignited a "regime judgment" argument among voters.

The people, who were dissatisfied with the worsening people's livelihood due to high oil prices caused by the eight-month-old war, clearly voted no confidence in the Trump administration and the Republican Congress in the midterm evaluation.

In the history of U.S. midterm elections, it has been 20 years since the 2006 midterm elections held during former President George W. Bush's second term in office that the opposition party recaptured not only the power of the Federal Assembly but also the majority of governors.

In 2006, the Democratic Party, which was the opposition party at the time, swept all three major elections in the midterm elections, including 51 seats in the Senate (including 2 Democratic-leaning independent seats), 233 seats in the House of Representatives, and 28 governorships.

Looking at these results alone, this year's election is a repeat of the 2006 election, and if you look at the reasons for the ruling party's defeat, the situation then and now are very similar.

In 2006, voter dissatisfaction increased due to fatigue over the prolonged Iraq War and lack of justification, and a series of corruption scandals among high-ranking Republican officials before the election were analyzed as factors in the Democratic Party's victory.

This is almost consistent with the current political environment, where the Republican Party suffered a crushing defeat due to dissatisfaction with the prolongation of the war with Iran and suspicions that members of the Trump administration were pursuing personal interests.

The fact that President George W. Bush's approval rating at the time fell to the mid-30% range is similar to that of President Trump, who recorded an all-time low approval rating in the low to mid-30% range before the election.

However, after the Republican Party's crushing defeat in the election, former President Bush immediately dismissed then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, holding him responsible for the failure of the war.

They accepted the judgment of the public, suggested a revision to the hard-line Iraq strategy, sought cooperation with the opposition party, and pulled out a card to change the political situation in order to slightly delay falling into a lame duck at the end of the regime.

President Trump also acknowledged to some extent that the election defeat was due to the war with Iran, and also expressed his intention to cooperate with the Democratic Party, which holds power in the next Congress.

However, in the process of deciding and carrying out the war with Iran, a line was drawn against the dismissal of Secretary of Defense (Department of War) Pete Hegseth, who was a hard-line hawk.

When asked if he would consider firing Secretary Hegseth during a meeting with reporters that day, President Trump said, "No," and added, "I think he's doing a very good job."

Hegseth himself has dismissed rumors of his resignation after the election and has stated that he will remain in his position until President Trump's term.

However, it appears that President Trump cannot rule out the possibility of deciding to fire Hegseth if his position in the Republican Party is increasingly narrowed as responsibility for the election defeat is focused on him.

The U.S. CBS broadcast quoted a source that day and reported, "President Trump is on the phone with his staff asking whether Secretary Hegseth should remain in his position."

The Democratic Party is also preparing to impeach and remove Minister Hegseth if it wins this election.

There are also observations that the direction of the impeachment bill against Minister Hegseth currently submitted to the House of Representatives will be a watershed that will determine his political fate.

There is a high possibility that lawmakers who have completed the election will vote on this agenda when they return to Washington, D.C., and if Republican lawmakers, who have witnessed the harsh public sentiment, vote in favor along with the Democratic Party, an environment could be created in which President Trump can no longer continue to 'cover Hegseth'.