I need a morning after pill - of some sort. I did predict that the republicans wouldn't do as good as some were saying, and to an extent, there was some truth in that. The dems did manage to hold onto the senate, although some seats were lost, such as in my home state of Illinois, that should not have been lost.

The democrats ran lousy campaigns, and combined with all the outside money that flowed in on behalf of republicans, we see the results. However, I don't believe that the republicans will be able to govern effectively, because they talk out of both sides of their mouth. A good example is their talk about balancing the budget, but their support for making the Bush tax cuts on the richest americans permanent. It's simply a non-sequitor.

And how did the democrats allow the "cap and trade" (which I don't necessarily think is the best answer, but it is a start, to the ever rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere) to be defined as a tax and job killer, when in actuality, it was and is one of the best paths to new jobs through forcing industries to change their way which would require new technology to be created and installed - creating jobs. I never did see an effective democratic response to this - instead, they ran from it. Dumb!

Rand Paul swamped Jack Conway. Too bad. I wrote earlier, the day that I first saw the aquabuddah ad, and before the pundits were talking about it, that this was a big deal and I wasn't sure how it was play with the public. Well, it played poorly, and it's too bad if that is what tipped the race.

In Paul's victory speech, he said that "government doesn't create jobs." That is simply false. For example, the economic analysis by Greenfire Consulting of the Wayne national forest plan found that, in the rural counties which include the Wayne national forest in SE Ohio, governments are the largest employer. Paul is in this fantasy world where he thinks that people can live together without government. I predict that he's going to have to swallow a lot of those words with his votes in the next 6 years. We'll see.

John Yarmouth, a democratic congressman in Kentucky who was re-elected, made the best victory speech that I heard. He did not back down for his positions, stood up for Nancy Pelosi, and stated firmly that he was going to continue to push ahead on progressive issues. Good for him. I like him a lot more now! I hope the transcript to his speech gets circulated among democrats.

I see a bad case of buyer's remorse coming. But it will be a game of chicken played between the senate and house. The republicans have the advantage, because they have a strong enough minority to keep progressive initiatives from moving out of the senate. At the same time, the republicans can pour one piece of legislation after another into the senate, and then blame the democrats for blocking it. But if the republican legislation is too far out, which it probably will be, it could backfire. Also, the president does have the number one bully pulpit, and that is a counterbalance to the republican legislative advantage.