I mentioned this in the Jolt, but it’s worth emphasizing again.

Ouch:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent $54.8 million during the last fund-raising period (Oct. 14 through Nov. 22) and was left with $19.5 million in debt. The DCCC had just over $3 million in the bank, according to a committee spokesman. Its Republican counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee, had $4.7 cash on hand after spending $31.3 million during the five-week stretch. It will report debt of $12 million. For the calendar year 2010, the DCCC spent $120.2 million while the NRCC spent $93.7 million.

Dolly Parton used to joke, “It costs a lot to look this cheap.” Well, it cost Chris Van Hollen and the DCCC a lot of money to lose as many seats as they did.

Then again, maybe it prevented a really bad night from being an epically bad night: If every Republican House candidate had won 2 percent more, they would have won or effectively tied (less than 1 percent difference) in twelve more seats: David Harmer (CA-11), Andy Vidak (CA-20), Mike Keown (GA-2), Jackie Walorski (IN-2), Ben Lange (IA-1), Andy Barr (KY-6), Ed Martin (MO-3), Jon Barela (NM-1), George Phillips (NY-11), Tim Burns, (PA-12), Keith Fimian (VA-11) and John Koster (WA-2).