Dressing up the Pig

Over at Hugh Hewitt today, George Smiley--an oft quoted Republican strategist in Hugh's election-night coverage--tried dressing up the pig a little. It doesn't help:

After reviewing the vote totals there is still plenty for Republicans to take solice in. This was not the wave year that MSM claimed it would be.

Republicans won most close races despite a terrible national environment, a true testament to their GOTV efforts.

Many races the GOP should have lost last night were won or lost narrowly. Last night would have been much uglier, but for the strong voter turn out effort.

Decided by two percentage points or fewer:
23 races, combined margins, 73,753
14 wins, 9 losses

Decided by fewer than 5,000 votes:
19 races, combined margins, 50,544
13 wins, 6 losses

Decided by fewer than 4,000 votes:
15 races, combined margins, 32,452
10 wins, 5 losses

Decided by fewer than 3,000 votes:
9 races, combined margins, 11,368
6 wins, 3 losses

Decided by fewer than 2,000 votes:
7 races, combined margins, 6,392
4 wins, 3 losses

Decided by fewer than 1,000 votes:
4 races, combined margins, 1,886
3 wins, 1 loss

What he writes, even if true, is absolutely of no solace. At the end of the day, the House and now the Senate are in Democrat hands. All day and into the early evening, Hugh and George both cautioned and encouraged conservatives with the myriad of reasons as to why things were closer than they appeared.

We turned out alright. It appears though that many of us made good on our threats and voted to "throw the bums out."

Yes, it was close. But it was still a repeat of '94, the only difference being in scale (in terms of the outcome). Every close race in both the House and Senate yesterday broke for the Democrats. Marvelously run and executed GOTV programs aside, it needn't have happened that way.

The Party has only itself to blame, a result of all the things it did and didn't do.