WHAT A NIGHT

Even though I finished up my live blogging at about 1 am, I still stayed up til about two or so hoping for a definitive answer out of Montana. So needless to say, I exhausted after over six hours of live blogging. That was my first time doing it and I enjoyed it overall, but that probably had more to do with the results than the actual act. Still, for those of you who came by and checked me out, thanks.

So, where are we at today? Back in control of at least one house of Congress, that's where! Now I'm just looking forward to heading out to my car and tuning into some rightie talk just to listen to go all Jonestown on their listeners. As I noted throughout the live blogging, this night was historic. The Democrats did not give up a single seat to the Republicans in the House or the Senate. As it stands right now, according to the DCCC, we have picked up 28 an amazing 28 seats and more could be coming. Truly historic. I know that the GOP looks back fondly on 1994 with their Republican Revolution, and now the Dems can point to 2006 as the year when sanity and accountability returned to Washington.

As for the Senate, I'm sure you're all aware that two races, Montana and Virginia, are too close to call at this point and will probably go the recount way. I'm comfortable with that as both Dems, Webb and Tester, are currently holding leads and it's always better to have a lead going into a recount then be the guy trailing. Just ask Al Gore.

Some quick individual House thoughts - As I noted before, it looks like Mean Jean Schmidt will still be in the House to kick around, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. ... Joe Sestak smacked down Curt Weldon in Pennsylvania 07. You'll recall Weldon, among his numerous other offenses, actually attacked Sestak for bringing his very ill daughter to an out-of-state facility for treatment. Classy dude. ... Double Amputee and Iraq War veteran could not break through her very Republican district in Illinois 06, but she lost by a small margin so we may see her again in two years. ... Another person to kick around is the virulently anti-gay Marilyn Musgrave, who survived her challenge against Angie Paccione in Colorado 04. Musgrave in the one who thinks that gay marriage is THE most important issue facing America today. While this wingnut didn't go down in defeat, at least her power is vastly diminished in a Democratically control House. ... The fight in Wyoming against the cripple and the woman who wanted to smack that cripple hasn't been called yet as Barbara Cubin (the slapper) leads Gary Trauner by a miniscule 822 votes. Granted, this is Wyoming where less than 200,000 votes total were cast, but it still quite close as 1% of precincts have failed to report. ... You want proof that every single vote counts, head up to Connecticut 02 where Democrat Joe Courtney leads incumbent Republican Rob Simmons by a razor thin 173 votes out of 242,000 total votes cast. 100% of precincts have reported, and this is obviously in recountville, but much like the results in Virginia and Montana, it's better to enter a recount in the lead, even a small one.

Up next, Bush is giving a press conference around lunchtime today. The smart move would be to be very concilliatory and such and I'm certain that's how he'll start off, but once the questions start flying you just know the impetuous man/child is going to rear his ugly head. He'll be impatient and jerky and overly demonstrative like a child who just had a toy taken away. It should be a sight to see.

Anyway, I'm off to work (my job I actually get paid for). A good car ride will give me some time to digest the enormity of what went down last night. It feels good to be a Dem today. See you all in a few hours.

Oh, one more thing, thanks to Kat and her odd sleeping patterns as she was able to continue posting long after I went to bed. Based on some numbers I've seen, we had numerous visitors throughout the night (which is unusual given the size of my readership) so I'm glad they had some new stuff to read, including the nice Santorum smackdown below. Thanks, Kat.