I'm back at the hotel after the CNN blogger bash, and I'd like to wrap up with a few final thoughts. I don't think anyone can honestly look at the results tonight and say that we saw anything less than a trip to the woodshed for the Republicans. We may hold the Senate by the barest of margins, but the House is gone in a substantial manner. Some will make comparisons between this six-year election and those past (1986, 1974, 1958) and claim a moral victory in containing the losses, but that simply won't fly.

This is a big loss, and it will hurt the GOP and the Bush administration. Even if we do hold the Senate, we will have to find compromise candidates for the federal bench, and also look forward to more taxes and regulation. Free trade is a goner. The prosecution of the war on terror will get limited by a probable repeal of the Patriot Act, or at least an attempt to do so, and I'm very sure the Democrats will move to defund the operations in Iraq by a date certain in order to force a "phased redeployment".

And that's not even counting the myriad investigations that Democrats will launch against the Bush administration. Republicans will keep it from getting out of hand, but the Democrats will want to build enough damaging allegations to win again in 2008.

However, in terms of policy at least, the American people have spoken. The majority endorsed these views, and now we have to see them play out. We can certainly criticize it -- and we will -- but we have to respect the voice of the American electorate. They wanted a different direction, and now they have to experience its consequences.

One final thought: I want to thank CNN and all of the bloggers who made this such an enjoyable event. John Aravosis said that he could have gotten more done if he had stayed home, and I think that's probably true. However, we would not have had the opportunity to meet each other, especially those of us who oppose each other in the blogosphere, and get to know each other as people. Jacki, Abbi, Alex, and all of the great technical staff really deserve kudos for their efforts to stage such a well-balanced event.

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