I don't believe Brit Hume is burned out or has gone over to the dark side. I do think he was privy to various polling results and he suspected the worst for Election Day because of his experience and ability. Yes, he may retire in the next couple of years but I seriously doubt this is causing him to vary from his superior analysis today.
If anything, Hume seems to exhibit a similar disgust many of us have over both the election and the way Republicans are handling our new status as minority party. For a party that needed, and needs, new leadership we seemed to have fallen into the same old trap we have suckered for in the past.
In the second page of the Time Q&A interview I linked to on Brit he says:
(Election night) CAN get old, and it's a very great danger, because the magic ingredient in journalism is enthusiasm. Reporters who are enthusiastic and passionately interested in the stories that they're doing do better work. If you've lost interest, you're going to fail, no matter how much you know or how interesting you might be on other things. It's a struggle to maintain your interest level.
I also don't think he's burned out, but others have taken the statement above along with his lackluster attitude the last couple of weeks before the election to mean just that. He did pass up some great smack down moments the last couple of Sunday roundtables before the election. The rest of the quote, however, tells a different story and reinforces your assumption about what he knew about the upcoming election:
Sometimes the outcome of an election is foretold, as it was for me when I was covering the Bush White House in '92. I could see that thing coming. There was no doubt about it. It was just a matter of standing there and watching the loser lose. It was a little boring.
However, last week he also seemed bored and the elections were over. If he's still "off his game" this week, what with the fireworks with Pelosi and Murtha and all the rest then I'll begin to wonder. Both Juan and Mara have written completely predictable lefty spin pieces since the election that just scream out for a thumping. If they repeat some of their talking points from those articles or push similar pap and Brit doesn't smack them down good then I'll suspect it's all over and he's just filling out his contract.