[Thrownatbirth]

"they should be saying thank you"

How many DNC flacks cringed? He wins one seat, then loses a handful.

[pillut48]

Pyrrhic victory

from dictionary.com
–noun
a victory or goal achieved at too great a cost.

Origin:
1880–85; < Gk Pyrrikós; after a remark attributed by Plutarch to Pyrrhus, who declared, after a costly victory over the Romans, that another similar victory would ruin him

Pyr·rhic victory (pĭr'ĭk)
n. A victory that is offset by staggering losses.

Pyrrhic victory [( peer -ik)]

A victory that is accompanied by enormous losses and leaves the winners in as desperate shape as if they had lost. Pyrrhus was an ancient general who, after defeating the Romans, told those who wished to congratulate him, “One more such victory and Pyrrhus is undone.”

Pyrrhic victory

A victory that is offset by staggering losses, as in The campaign was so divisive that even though he won the election it was a Pyrrhic victory . This expression alludes to Kind Pyrrhus of Epirus, who defeated the Romans at Asculum in a.d. 279, but lost his best officers and many of his troops. Pyrrhus then said: "Another such victory and we are lost." In English the term was first recorded (used figuratively) in 1879.