Kristol: “A year ago, the liberal media hoped tea partiers were going to generate suicidal third-party challenges, scare off independents from the Republicans, and generally destroy the Republican party. It turns out they’ve probably cost the GOP one Senate seat on the way to a huge off-year election victory. It’s a small price to pay.”

Agreed. More than that, the tea partiers have improved the quality of next year’s likely Republican officeholders in Alaska, Utah, and Florida–and that’s just in the Senate.

One other thing: Compared to this spring, Nevada and Delaware look less winnable (although I’m not counting out Nevada), but other states look more winnable (Washington and Wisconsin). Any good news here for Democrats is awfully limited.