Things turned out much better than I’d expected. Why? Maybe it was turnout– the rain. Maybe it was the fact that many Republican candidates ran like

they wanted to win, and the president was behind them. Maybe its because in

times of international peril and economic stress people prefer Republicans.

Maybe its the Democrats dying a death of 1000 cuts as the tender coalition

that make up the party deteriorates. I tend to think the result arises from

the accumulation of lots of little local breaks in the GOP’s direction.

In our glee we shouldn’t forget some of the things that went wrong. New

Jersey. Certain weak incumbents and open seat candidates that required more

attention than they should have. Monday I had a very bad feeling about North Carolina — apparently unjustified — when I’d read that Dole spent the Sunday before the election “running personal errands.”

It will be a different Republican Senate, too. We’ve replaced Strom Thurmond

with Lindsay Graham, so the fertility rate will fall if nothing else. And Jesse Helms is replaced by Elizabeth Dole. Sigh.

Oh, it will be a different Republican House too. No Connie Morella. I think

I can hear my friends in the Maryland suburbs cheering