Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum have gotten into a bit of a juvenile street fight: (CNN) – Sarah Palin is mixing it up with potential rival Rick Santorum, suggesting the former Pennsylvania senator and presidential hopeful is a “knuckle-dragging Neanderthal.” The eyebrow-raising slap came in response to Santorum’s recent comments that Palin was likely skipping [...]

Washington Examiner cartoonist Nate Beeler sums up the Republican contest thus far quite aptly: In the accompanying commentary, Beeler observes, “While the Republican heavies snipe at each other over who is the real conservative in the race, Barry Goldwater is rolling over in his grave.” Part of the problem, though, is that while Reagan and [...]

Dan Balz, Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta analyze a new ABC/WaPo poll showing that Rudy Giuliani continues to dominate the Republican field and find that “electability” is a key reason for his strong showing. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll of the Republican field shows Giuliani with a sizeable lead over his three principal rivals. [...]

Scott Keyes takes a look at the former Members of Congress who lost re-election bids or campaigns for higher office to see what they’re doing now and what plans they may have for a political future.

Greg Giroux notes that, for all the clamor about the radical sweep made by the electorate in the recent midterm elections, 94 percent of those who sought re-election were successful. This was, however, a drop from the 98 percent plus rate in 2004.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have sent a letter to President Bush–and everyone else–arguing against a “surge” of forces in Iraq. Some excerpts and commentary: The American people demonstrated in the November elections that they don’t believe your current Iraq policy will lead to success and that we need a change in direction for the [...]

Rick Santorum’s re-election defeat has had one previously unexplored consequence: the end of free candy for Senators. With Democrats back in control of Congress for the first time in years, much is changing in the nation’s capital, including a longtime tradition in the U.S. Senate: the “candy desk.” For a decade until his defeat last [...]

I’ve received two BREAKING NEWS alerts from CNN in my inbox today: “Congress convened today with Democrats in control of both the House and Senate for the first time in a dozen years.” (12:06) “California Democrat Nancy Pelosi has become the first woman to be elected speaker of the United States House of Representatives.” (1:33) [...]

The Economist features a piece by “Lexington” contending that, Zell Miller’s book nothwithstanding, the Democrats are a national party while the Republican Party no longer has much appeal outside the South. The extent of the southernisation of the Republican Party is astonishing. The party was all but wiped out in its historic base, the north-east. [...]

David Sanger notes that those calling for a rapid withdrawal from Iraq seem strangely silent now that the election is over and the anti-Iraq side won convincingly. To some degree, this is a function of the institutional arrangements of our government. In a parliamentary system, a sweep in the legislature yields a new prime minister [...]

Jon Henke, brought aboard a sinking ship as George Allen’s New Media Coordinator, argues that the Left Blogosphere and Democratic candidates did a far better job of working together than their Right/Republican counterparts in the decisive Allen-Webb race in particular and the election in general. Given the number of very close races, Henke proclaims, “Were [...]

In my morning-after election analysis, I noted that it would be very difficult for the Republicans to take the House back in 2008 but that the Senate was well within grasp if the GOP got their act together. I wrote that without actually breaking down the races, though. Chris Cillizza has and it does not [...]

There were some interesting trends: Phone polls tended to be better than online surveys, and companies that used recorded voices rather than live humans in their surveys were standouts. Nearly everyone had some big misses, though, such as predicting that races would be too close to call when in fact they were won by healthy [...]

Daniel Gross reports: … the poll for the House vote in the East showed that the 25 percent of the electorate making over $100,000 went big for Democrats overall, 57-42, compared with a 49-48 margin in 2004. In 2006, those making between $150,000 and $200,000 voted for Democratic candidates by a whopping 63-37 majority, and [...]

That is my hope, but I have to wonder if it really will mean a slowdown in government spending. Over at Cato Stephen Silivinski writes the following, Despite what Republicans have been saying the past few weeks, the Democratic takeover of the House won’t necessarily be a bad thing for the economy. That’s not because [...]

Greg Mankiw points to some interesting data on the price of stocks for Big Pharma. While overall the stock market was up, the stock price of these big pharamceutical companies took a hit? Mankiw’s interprets this data to mean that the Democrats are going to do something about drug prices. My guess is he is [...]

David Weigel and Katherine Mangu-Ward from Reason magazine ask Representative Jeff Flake about Republicans and small government and here is the answer. Reason: Has the GOP given up on the ideals of small government? Flake: Well, that’s the natural conclusion to draw. There are some—like [fellow Arizona Republican Rep.] John Shadegg and not many others—who [...]

My thanks to James for inviting me to guest blog here while my home site (ProfessorBainbridge.com) is undergoing construction. After three years of nearly daily blogging, I was ready for a break, but now that my hiatus has gone more than a month, I’m ready to be back. Steven Taylor’s post below on the “quotes [...]

Lincoln Chafee is considering leaving the Republican Party after his defeat Tuesday. Two days after losing a bid for a second term in an election seen as a referendum on President Bush and the Republican Party, Sen. Lincoln Chafee said he was unsure whether he’d remain a Republican. “I haven’t made any decisions. I just [...]

Kevin Drum analyzes the exit polls from 2004 and 2006 and finds that “It turns out that the big lesson is that there’s no big lesson.” Basically, Democrats did about 5 percentage points better than last go-round overall and between 2-7 percent better with all regional and social cohorts except a few: Group Gain No [...]

The post mid-term purge continues, with Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman leaving at the end of his term in January. Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, whose party lost both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, will step down from his post when his two-year term ends in January, GOP officials said Thursday. [...]

One of the worst things President Bush did in terms of the fiscal outlook for this country was to put forward the Medicare prescription drug benefit. This plan is estimated to add $8.7 trillion in unfunded liabilities to Medicare’s $21 trillion in unfunded liabilities. This is money that we won’t be able to pay. And [...]

J. Thomas cites the following data as evidence (as if any were needed) that George Allen ran one awful campaign: Republican incumbant – District 2004 % 2006 % Allen 2006 % Davis – VA01 78% 63% 54% Drake – VA02 55% 51% 51% Forbes – VA04 64% 76% (no dem) 54% Good – VA05 63% [...]

John Zogby has sent out a press release touting his genius as a political forecaster: As the election drew near, Pollster Zogby was quoted widely saying that he believed the Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives would pick up between 25 and 30 seats, and that Democrats would almost certainly pick up three or [...]

Jason Smith asks, “[W]ouldn’t it be ironic, if the man Democrats threw to the wolves, Joe Lieberman, decided the best payback to his disloyal colleagues was to pull a Jeffords?” Yes. Yes it would. It would also be, as it was in Jeffords’ case, quite despicable. Like his political twin, John McCain, Lieberman is an [...]

Mark Tapscott sums things up pretty nicely: “When Republicans worry more about staying in government than about limiting government, they get thrown out of government.” I disagree, however, with his long range forecast: What happens in the GOP in the next 90 days will determine whether the party ever again has a realistic chance of [...]

One day after the state’s voters approved Proposal 2, a Constitutional amendment banning affirmative action programs, President Mary Sue Coleman vows to devote her efforts to finding a way around the ban. In a statement that has a promising second career as a college drinking game, the word “diversity” appears 21 times; I will not [...]

President Bush says that raising the minimum wage is “common ground” that he’d be willing to meet the Democrats on. It is stuff like this that makes me wonder if Bush really is a Conservative/Republican. As I’ve argued before, raising the minimum wage does little to address the issue of families living in poverty. A [...]

Denny Hastert has, finally, done the honorable thing and announced he will not seek re-election to the Leadership. Triggering a post-election shake-up, Dennis Hastert announced Wednesday he will not run for leader of House Republicans when Democrats take control in January. “Obviously I wish my party had won,” the House Speaker said in a statement [...]

Erick Erricson breaks news that Mike Pence and John Shadegg are going to run for Minority Leader and Minority Whip. Great news, indeed. Both are reasonably conservative–and fiscal conservatives, at that–and untainted with the stench of the scandals that helped transform the current Majority into the incoming Minority. Rob Bluey has details: As the conservative [...]

Absent some dramatic turnaround in the numbers in Virginia or Montana, which I don’t expect, the Republicans will lose the Senate. They have already lost the House; the only question is by how many seats. The Senate results are precisely as I predicted Sunday, although I had revised my prediction in the CNN bloggers pool [...]

Howard Kurtz has already written the first several paragraphs for tomorrow’s WaPo story on the impact of how today’s elections effect the Republic’s political landscape. Two versions, in fact, covering his bets. The first paragraph of each: Ushering in a new political alignment that could render President Bush impotent in his final two years, Democrats [...]

USA Today passes on early reports of difficulties in implementing new electronic voting machines: •In Indiana’s Marion County, about 175 of 914 precincts turned to paper because poll workers didn’t know how to run the machines, said Marion County Clerk Doris Ann Sadler. • Election officials in Delaware County, Ind., planned to seek a court [...]

GOP.com hosted a blogger conference call with Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman. Some highlights from the opening remarks: – Very high turnout in Virginia in Republican districts. – 4/10 people in Tennessee are voting absentee, with the Republicans having a huge lead. – 2004 Democratic voter guide “If there is no fraud, allege it.” [...]

WSJ reports on extraordinary measures being taken to safeguard exit poll results from diabolical bloggers. Two-by-two, polling specialists from ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News and the Associated Press will go into rooms in New York and Washington shortly before noon Tuesday. Their cellphones and BlackBerrys will be confiscated; proctors will monitor the doors; and [...]

Adam Nagourney argues that expectations are so high for the Democrats that anything short of overwhelming victory will look like failure. In most midterm elections, an out-of-power party picking up, say, 14 seats in the House and five seats in the Senate could call it a pretty good night. But for Democrats in 2006, that [...]

Conn Carroll concisely sums up a controversy brewing in the Left-o-Sphere that has been, so far as I can tell, been ignored by the major blogs on the Right. Talking Points Memo is leading lefty blogger reporting on robocalls going to voters throughout the country including NH-02, NY-19, IL-06, IL-08, CA-04, and CT-04. the calls [...]

Hotline editor Chuck Todd presents a flashback to the generic congressional ballot surveys in the closing days of 1994: ABC: — 47-46 in favor of the Dems (a 6-point swing in the last week toward the Dems) Gallup: — 51-44 for the GOP (a 4 point swing in the last week toward the Dems) NBC: [...]

In an interview hometown paper San Francisco Chronicle, would-be Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said the only way the Democrats could fail win back the House is if the Republicans steal the election. Pelosi cautioned that the number of Democratic House victories could be higher or lower and said her greatest concern is over [...]

It appears Denny Hastert is out one way or the other. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert’s future is in doubt even if the Republicans retain control of the House because of unease among GOP lawmakers about his handling of the Foley page scandal and what a House ethics committee investigation might conclude about him, according [...]

Sunday’s Washington Post rounds up the evidence supporting a Democratic takeover of both chambers of Congress: Two days before a bitterly fought midterm election, Democrats have moved into position to recapture the House and have laid siege to the Senate, setting the stage for a dramatic recasting of the power structure in Washington for President [...]

WaPo fronts a long story by Jonathan Weisman and Jeff Birnbaum entitled, “Scandals Alone Could Cost Republicans Their House Majority.” While one could certainly question the placement of a story that contains no actual news (in the sense of being new) on the front page less than a week before the election, it’s difficult to [...]

A very funny and effective ad campaign that not only reminds people in Florida’s 12th CD that they have to vote for Mark Foley in order to elect Joe Negron but makes it a little more palatable to do so:

John Hawkins polled a large number of conservative bloggers on the 2006 election (I was asked but didn’t participate) and got some interesting results. 1) Do you think the GOP is going to retain control of the House? Yes (38) — 61.3% No (24) — 38.7% According to all the reputable polling I’ve seen over [...]

Yet another bizarre incident captured on video in the tight U.S. Senate race in Virginia pitting Republican incumbent George Allen against Jim Webb. Michael Shear and Tim Craig in today’s WaPo (page A13, so relatively buried): A Democratic activist who verbally confronted U.S. Sen. George Allen at a campaign rally in Charlottesville yesterday was shoved, [...]

That Katherine Harris is on the odd side is hardly news. Still, according to reporting by WaPo’s Libby Copeland, Harris appears to be coming unglued. Katherine Harris, who is trying to become a U.S. senator, says she is writing a tell-all about the many people who have wronged her. This includes, but is not necessarily [...]

Pro Bowl quarterback Drew Brees has threatened to sue his mom if she doesn’t stop using his likeness in her campaign commercials. New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees has asked his mother to stop using his picture in TV commercials touting her candidacy for a Texas appeals court. In commercials running on Austin stations, Mina [...]

WaPo’s Metro section leads today with a story that key black Democrats in Maryland’s DC suburbs are endorsing Republican Michael Steele for the Senate. A coalition of black Democratic political leaders from Prince George’s County led by former county executive Wayne K. Curry endorsed Republican Michael S. Steele’s bid for the U.S. Senate yesterday. The [...]

Radley Balko‘s allegiances in the competition for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Bill Frist have shifted due to an unlikely event: the public revelation of a Facebook photo showing Julia Corker, daughter of Republican nominee Bob Corker, apparently making out with another young woman with some dopey looking frat guy kissing air in [...]

Palm Beach Post blogger Larry Lipman reports: “There are 22 daily newspapers in Florida. All 22 have endorsed Bill Nelson.” I demand a recount! (Alternate punch line: Damned liberal media!) Amusing: “The only newspaper that has endorsed Republican candidate Harris is ironically named the Polk County Democrat, published four days a week in Harris’ girlhood [...]