Dejected Democratic Defeat

The lead story in today’s New York Times, “G.O.P. Takes House,” in banner headlines describes a long anticipated outcome yet somewhat of a shock nevertheless. In the election coverage last night, long-time Democratic representatives, some with more than 10 terms under their belt, suffered the results of a Republican tidal wave.

Conservative stalwarts like Marco Rubio of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania swept into the Senate as well though Harry Reid squeaked through to keep his seat, and the Democrats maintained marginal control of the Senate.

Meanwhile, the turnover of leadership in the House was called relatively early in the evening on MSNBC, and John Boehner gave a victory speech as he was poised to assume leadership of the House.

There were some bright spots for Democrats as Andrew Cuomo became Governor of New York, Barbara Boxer held on to her California Senate seat, and, in one of the more bizarre developments, Jerry Brown became Governor (again) of California.

President Obama remained on the grounds of the White House all day long, suffering the ignominy of defeat and a much changed landscape for the remaining two years of his term. He even lost his own former Senate seat in Illinois to put the icing on the cake.

We’ll see now if the Republicans are responsible enough to govern in the House instead of just trying to gum up the works and throw stink bombs at President Obama.