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The New York Times published these excellent visual representations of yesterday’s election results, including analyses based upon before and after polling. And they are pretty stunning. Results on the 35 Senate races: The Democrats won each seat they were expected to win, as did Republicans, including Louisiana, which will have a run-off on December 6th, as both candidates were under 50%. Of the 7 toss-up races, Republicans won 6, their only loss being in New Hampshire. Fifteen states held no Senate election. Net change of +7 for the Republicans. Results on the House races:

Consider this karma avoidance by the soon-to-be-ex-Senate Majority Leader, but Harry Reid’s new act won’t fool anyone, least of all Mitch McConnell. Reid has run the US Senate for the past eight years like a dictatorship, steadily eroding minority privileges to the point where Republicans couldn’t offer amendments or put up any significant resistance to Barack Obama’s radical appointments, unless Democrats forced Reid’s hand on either score. After watching his party lay a historic egg in the midterms — the size of which is still not yet fully known — Reid tried spinning the results as a mandate for the...

You almost never see this in politics. David Krone, the chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D), launches a major attack on the White House in this blockbuster story by my colleagues Philip Rucker and Robert Costa: At a March 4 Oval Office meeting, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and other Senate leaders pleaded with Obama to transfer millions in party funds and to also help raise money for an outside group. “We were never going to get on the same page,” said David Krone, Reid’s chief of staff. “We were beating our heads against...

It's been a pretty good election night for Republicans so far. That means that, naturally, former GOP member of Congress and general gadfly Ron Paul decided to rain on the parade: Ron Paul ✔ @RonPaul Republican control of the Senate = expanded neocon wars in Syria and Iraq. Boots on the ground are coming! 7:34 PM - 4 Nov 2014 1,168 Retweets 524 favorites On a night when most of his former party is celebrating its moves toward taking the Senate, Paul is bemoaning the idea of a Republican takeover on grounds that it'll lead to more wars in the...

No one expected this race to be this close. Incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Warner and Republican Ed Gillespie are nearly tied in Virginia’s Senate race, according to early returns. With 99 percent of precincts in, Warner leads with 49.1 percent to Gillespie’s 48.5 percent. Speaking to supporters late Tuesday, Gillespie said he wasn’t ready to concede. “We’re going to be patient here. And I believe we need to be respectful of the voters.” “This race is not going to be decided until the last vote is counted,” adviser Mark Obenshain added at the election night celebration. Gillespie shocked observers by...

He will soon be back to his same old - same old:"

Freshman Rep. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) easily clinched victory in the Montana Senate race Tuesday, scoring another pickup for Republicans. Daines was seen as the favorite throughout the year, and any hope of Democrats retaining the seat fell away when interim Sen. John Walsh (D-Mont.) bowed out of the race in August amid revelations that he plagiarized large portions of his master's thesis at the Army War College in 2007. The Associated Press and other outlets called the race shortly after polls closed there. Democrats scrambled to replace Walsh on the ballot, picking Amanda Curtis, a freshman state representative. But she...

SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota — Republican favorite Mike Rounds beat out three opponents for South Dakota's open U.S. Senate seat in a race that was once considered close enough for national scrutiny — and money. The former two-term governor prevailed over Democrat Rick Weiland and independent candidates Larry Pressler and Gordon Howie to replace retiring Democrat Tim Johnson. Rounds led his opponents in fundraising and polling for most of the campaign. South Dakota was among the top targets in the Republican Party's quest to net six seats and take control of the chamber for the final two years of President...

While he has been kept tucked in the Oval Office and the Democrats have sent Bill and Hillary Clinton out to campaign for Democrats, today, in an un announced interview on NPR the President has said: “ “In this election cycle, this is probably the worst possible group of states for Democrats since Dwight Eisenhower. There are a lot of states being contested, they just tend to vote Republican.” Previously the President said (just before they locked him in the Oval Office): “ “I’m not on the ballot this fall. Michelle’s pretty happy about that,” Obama said. “But make no...

Let’s engage in a thought experiment. If Republicans were so terrified of impending electoral losses that they resorted to rallying pro-life voters by distributing mailers via surrogates that warned of forcible, government mandated abortion in the wake of a Democratic victory, the political press would be scandalized. The flipside of that scenario, Democrats embracing the caustic and dangerous notion that a Republican takeover of the Senate would herald a return to Jim Crow and state-supported racial violence, has not similarly incensed the Fourth Estate. In fact, a few of the more partisan political observers in the media see some merit...

As a Democrat, Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu is running up against the late stages of partisan realignment. But while the rise of the GOP in the South may end her political career, nobody has ever confused Landrieu for a political neophyte, or accused her of misunderstanding the essence of Louisiana politics. It’s against that backdrop that she attributed President Obama’s unpopularity in her state, in part, to the fact that “the South has not always been the friendliest place for African Americans.” As regional or cultural dog whistles go, this is significantly less contestable than, say, the GOP's incessant derision...

Over the weekend Senator Harkin, while campaigning for Bruce Braley, suggested that people may vote for Joni Ernst because she’s really attractive and sounds nice, but they shouldn’t be fooled by that. MSNBC this morning called the comments stupid and said it’s likely they could backfire on Braley:(VIDEO-AT-LINK)This morning Joni Ernst went on Fox and Friends and called the Senator’s words offensive:(VIDEO-AT-LINK)As we know already Ernst has jumped to a nice 7-point lead over Braley and while Harkin’s comment’s may not backfire, it certainly won’t help Braley either.

And with a solid control of congress and senate, the GOP needs to put an end to the President using Air-Force one for "Casual Affairs and Vacations". Being congress controls the purse, what they need to impose on the President is this. You want to use Air-Force One for fundraisers and partying with your buddies in Los Angeles,then You Pay For It! The President has millions of dollars, so why cant he pay for the fuel? What does it cost to fly the 747? $350,000 an hr? And who pays for it?

In a last-minute gift to Democrats on the eve of the midterm elections, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has announced his plan to push for Senate Republicans to declare a rightist war against Democrats if the GOP wins control of the Senate. Set aside the campaign pitches of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Colorado Senate candidate Rep. Cory Gardner (R), Iowa Senate candidate Joni Ernst (R), Georgia GOP Senate candidate David Perdue and Alaska GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan, who promise to end gridlock in Washington and govern for "all of the people." Cruz says they are all wrong. Cruz...

It largely escaped the notice of the national media, but there has been a pretty big political story playing out in Houston the last few weeks. Well, it has been a big story, at least, for one very key GOP constituency. Here's the recap: The city of Houston a few weeks back subpoenaed the sermons of five pastors who opposed an ordinance that was aimed at increasing the rights and protections of LGBT residents of the city, which is home to the first openly lesbian mayor of a major American city, Annise Parker (D). The subpoenas were issued in response...

After tomorrow's midterm results, the media will settle on some tired explanations. Here's why they're all wrong. As I write this, the midterm elections are imminent. A number of races are quite close, but it seems safe to say that Republicans will probably win control of the Senate, if only by a slim margin. Should this happen, two things are virtual certainties: first, a blast of right-wing triumphalism, whose upshot will be that the electorate has endorsed Republican obstruction and its virulent rejection of all-things-Obama; second, an equally shrill threnody of Democratic recrimination, whose principal refrain will be (more or...

Lets use this scenario, it's about 10:30 EST. We are waiting for Iowa, and maybe Colorado to call in the votes. By 10:00 we have already reached 49 seats and "Our On The Edge Of Our Seats" waiting for "50 and 51". It's 10:35, Iowa calls it for GOP, then at 10:45, GOP is ahead by 10 points and FOX calls it for the GOP. Then what? We Pop The Champagne? Jump up and down? Shoot our rifles into the air?(well, so long as Joe Biden approves). Or just a 15 second "Screaming Yesssssss!!" %$#@!*!! Harry Reid !!!

Republican once considered an obscure one-term state senator has the momentum in Iowa despite suffering the ridicule of her rivals. Joni Ernst became famous by gazing into a camera and boasting of castrating hogs on the Iowa farm where she grew up. “So when I get to Washington, I’ll know how to cut pork,” she said. The campaign ad Squeal showed images of pigs, then came her punchline. “Washington is full of big spenders. Let’s make ‘em squeal.” Even Democrats laughed. Late-night comedians spoofed it. Few, initially, took it seriously. This was back in March. Ernst was an obscure, one-term...

It will be interesting to hear the explanations of the "Highly Respectable & Credible" Debbie Wasserman come later this week. How will she explain the GOP victory on all of the cable news programs. "Well, the primary reason the Republicans took 8 seats in the Senate was because of extreme cold weather in tossup states, and as we all know, Democrats don't like to wait in line in the cold to vote". Or maybe she will claim that 100 per-cent of racists came out to vote against Obama last Tuesday. Many far left commentators are about to become laughing stocks...