November 3rd ....

So here we are again. Another November 3rd. And I'll admit, I'm somewhat less emotional this time around, as opposed to 2004, when I was a quivering, hungover mess. I haven't decided yet whether this sense of calm is a good thing, or a sign of detachment. I suppose we'll see.

On the whole, rhetoric aside, last night's election was a bit of a mixed bag. Sure, the GOP won the House in a surge bigger than the so-called Republican Revolution, but they lost the Senate, and indeed, lost the Senate in part due to the intervention of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, pushing out moderate Republicans from races the GOP would likely have won. And indeed, while the GOP racked up a lot of wins, the most egregious of their candidates went down hard. Sure, Rand and Rubio won, and handily, A lot of their brightest stars were a wash: Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, Carl Paladino, Sharron Angle,  Christine O'Donnell, John Raese, Tom Tancredo. And of course, the guy who dressed up like a Nazi. A lot of people, including the Huffington Post, are still calling this a win for Sarah Palin, as a lot of her candidates, such as Nikki Healy, did get through, but it doesn't take much surface-scratching to see that it's really a win for the more "GOP establishment" leader, Michael Steele. Yeah, I said it. On the other hand, while a few of us out here on the left are at least counting our blessings about some of those folks not making it in, we're also mourning the losses of a lot of our great liberal progressives, such as Tom Perriello, Alan Grayson and the great Russ Feingold. So a lot of the extremes are filed off. (But Jerry Brown's back in office! How weird is that?)

And let's just add another interesting wrinkle to the mix: the GOP brought in an African-American senator from the deep south, a Latino senator in Florida, and put in office another Indian-American governor, all of which tells me that those demographic groups are not only growing in strength, but also in complexity. Which, on the whole, is actually a good sign: As groups grow less vulnerable, their politics tend to get more complicated, as existential threats seem more distant. Note there were also 123 openly gay candidates on the ballots this year, many of them winning, including in Kentucky.

So was this a victory for moderates? I'd say so. The GOP got their win, but it's almost meaningless without the Senate. They have such a thin majority that they can't get a whole lot extreme through, and even if they do, they don't have a hope in hell of overturning a presidential veto. Their options moving forward are a.) sit on their hands (a favorite tactic, but voters tend to look less favorably on that in majority parties) or b.) embrace a bit of bipartisanship. Of course, Republican decision making sometimes baffles me, so we'll see.

For me, it all goes back a bit, to the special election that brought us Scott Brown. Back then, the GOP was saying "As goes Massachusetts, so goes the country." And they were right: Scott Brown won his race against Martha Coakley, tilted the balance of the senate a bit, but ultimately, proved to be a more livable Republican politician than seemed likely at the time, occasionally bucking the party to get a few important bills passed. This time around, Massachusetts bucked the wave, re-electing governor Deval Patrick and keeping Democratic stalwarts such as Jim McGovern and Barney Frank in office. And why wouldn't it? While not immune to the woes plaguing the rest of the country, Mass. is coming out of the mire a lot faster than most. Does Massachusetts' liberal bent and its penchant for occasional bouts of moderation bode something for the Democratic Party's future? One hopes. But I'll tell you this much: If Mass. continues to pull ahead of states taking more austere approaches, and if the national economy begins to brighten, which seems likely at this juncture, then start looking for Patrick and Lt. Governor Tim Murray to be stepping up the national political stage. Hmmm. I've had my issues with Tim in the past (back when he was mayor of Worcester and I wrote the Infante's Inferno column for the InCity Times), but I've got to admit, "Senator Murray" has a ring to it ...

Game on.