What Happened?
Ed Morrissey

National Review Online had the first of the post-mortems up this morning, featuring input from several political writers on the cause and meaning of the midterm results. It's an interesting mix of analyses; Republican disunity, Democratic play-acting get some play. Kate O'Beirne and I tend to believe that this reflects Republican performance more than anything else, and Kate believes it started from the White House down: ...

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The Republican Rout - Blogger Reaction
Kim Priestap

I'm still smarting from last night's Republican rout and will have my thoughts a little later once I get my brain cells in order. In the mean time, here is blogger reaction:  ...

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So far Zero Ponsdorf, The Gray Dog, and Russ Vaughn have checked in at Old War Dogs. Go there now, then check back later for more.

I guess the most important part of my rant last night, now that I've calmed down a little, was

The campaign to take back our country starts today. Maybe, just maybe, there will still be something worth saving by the next election.

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The Mourning After
Debbie Hamilton

The message in the media this morning seems to be congratulations to the winners, 'let's just all get along', and make nice with each other. That sounds good, but we all know it's a bunch of crap and meant for sound-bites in the press. I'm not angry with the Democrats. They did what was needed for their party to win. I'm angry with the moronic conservatives who thought that 'sending a message' by voting out Republicans they didn't like and replacing them with Democrats was a good idea.

The truth this morning is conservatives wanted to 'send a message' to Congress that they were not happy with the way things have been run over the past 6 years. Ok, message sent. Now what do you have to look forward to? Just wait and see.  ...

Here's what we now face: ...

So what can the GOP-dominated lame-duck session accomplish in the weeks before the Pelosi gang takes over?

Here's an agenda.  ...

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"A Day Which Will Live In Infamy!"
Althor

Yesterday was a sad day for America! A day which alongside December 7th 1941 will live in "infamy" in the annals of American history. A day which marks the beginning of the decline of our once great nation as assuredly as the Roman's effeminate, hedonistic, refusal to fight off the barbarian hordes ushered the fall of Rome! A day in which cheering Jihadist terrorists and enemies of America all over the world celebrated in triumph the victory of the Democrats in taking over the House in Congress.

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Conservatism did not lose
Michelle Malkin

... The GOP lost. Conservatism prevailed. "San Francisco values" may control the gavels in Congress, but they do not control America. Property rights initiatives limiting eminent domain won big. MCRI, the anti-racial preference measure, passed resoundingly. Congressman Tom Tancredo, the GOP's leading warrior against illegal immigration--opposed by both the open-borders Left and the open-borders White House--won a fifth term handily. Gay marriage bans won approval in 3 states. And as of this writing, the oil tax initiative, Prop. 87--backed by deep-pocketed Hollywood libs, is trailing badly in California. ...

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Alexandra has an excellent reactions and analysis roundup here.

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And the beat goes on
Bryan Preston

Republican hegemony ends, but that doesn’t usher in the Pax Pelosi.

Dozens killed in a suicide bombing in Pakistan.

Scores killed in Sri Lanka refugee camp.

Hamas tossed out its truce (such as it was) with Israel.

On the big issue, the beat goes on. Contrary to that dishonest Democrat ad, it’s not all about Iraq. It’s about the jihad, stupid. ...

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NO SULKING HERE!
For Conservatives, Lots Of Reasons For Optimism
Brian Maloney (H/T: Michelle)

Unlike Democrats after their 2004 election debacle, it doesn't seem likely that many conservatives will threaten to move to Canada, spend months in therapy, or engage in angry, unhinged public meltdowns.

Welcome to the No- Sulk Zone!

The reasons are many:

• For several years now, conservatives have grown exceptionally frustrated with the GOP leadership on a number of issues, especially illegal immigration and out- of- control government spending. We've seen so little progress on these pressing matters that the loss of Republican Congressional control doesn't sting nearly as much as it should have.

• Rather than being won by Democrats, this election was lost by Republicans. Neither party made a good case for itself this year, but anti- GOP sentiment was strong enough to toss them out.
  
  Quick: what issues did the Democrats run on this year? Other than on the idea of opposing Republicans, there were almost none. In the long run, that doesn't bode well for their party. ...

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Diebold! Stolen election! Um, never mind...
Michelle Malkin

One of those black box conspiracy nuts was on Fox this morning. When the morning crew asked her about all of the stolen election rhetoric that crescendoed right before Election Day, her response was:

"Well how do you know it didn't happen?"

Un. Real.

Smarter Dems have just clammed up about the whole thing.  ....

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So Now What?
Webloggin

Shellacking, woodshed, creamed, destroyed, upended. These are all terms that come to mind when I look back at the destruction of the Republican Party in yesterday’s mid-term election.

Quite frankly I felt like I was watching the brutal Raiders of the mid-70’s pulverize my team who simply wasn’t up to the task.

In retrospect it had to happen. The Republican Party did this to themselves. Races that should have been about ideological differences were reduced to personal slugfests that simply didn’t fly with the electorate.

America will survive and Republicans will get a much needed opportunity to rebuild the party with conservatives who will get back to what it means to be a conservative. Unfortunately there was much to be done and this last Republican Congress let it slip. Good riddance.

So now what? ...