Election 2006: Where Does It Stand?

Early Democrat momentum has quickly been snuffed out in the Senate races while continuing in most House races. With Dems already having gained 11 seats in the House it is a lock that they will take it over. Speaker Pelosi is inevitable; the Democrats have the House.

But the Senate is probably over. Harold Ford is done, Jim Webb has to hope for a recount and Claire McCaskill has seen her early lead vanish. The GOP will keep the Senate. It's as if voters were comfortable with giving the House to the Dems while wanting no part of a sweep and trying to force bipartisanship upon DC with a mixed Congress. Interesting.

The southern Senate seats were always a stretch for Dems, and even more so after the Foley scandal turned up dead. Will Dean and the brass see this a s a defeat, even with the House well in hand? Those poll numbers were very good for Democrats in September and October and yet they still managed to throw away VA, TN and MO. When all is said and done tomorrow (and it does look like it will actually end tomorrow), it will be important to delve into the numbers and see exactly why the race for the two branchs of Congress turned out so different from one another. Is it a sign that voters see the GOP as better able to handle the more important Senate side of Congress? What does it all hold for '08? Stay tuned.

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Incidentally, the TV coverage tonight was found to be severely lacking. The cable networks had way too much dead time to fill with unnecessary pundit talk and speeches from candidates no one cared about, while the big three networks had choppy coverage mixed in with incessant ads. Katie handed her coverage over to Bob Schieffer most of the night (Yessss!), merely directing traffic through all of the returns. NBC was all ads, clearly trying to boost MSNBC. Chuck Gipson on ABC was the best. Outside of his unnerving swiveling in his rickety chair, he was solid and constantly on. The pundits were dry as always.

It was disappointing to learn that Political Buzz was not inivted to CNN's "E-Lection" blogger get-together in DC. We surely would have accepted. Probably just an oversight.