GOP power broker and president of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist got giddy over the Republican sweep. The Democrats, he told PBS's Bill Moyers, better prepare themselves to be a permanent minority party. His comments followed a recent article in which Norquist predicted the GOP would zoom ahead with a sweeping range of policy changes, while the Dems continue to sputter toward 2008 with Hillary at the wheel.

"The next four years are a wonderful opportunity for the GOP," Norquist wrote. "They're a chance for the party to see what its governors and senators can achieve in lowering and simplifying taxes, offering parents school choice, ending abusive lawsuits, protecting gun rights and other liberties, and furthering decent, limited government. The next Republican candidates for President will have to make their case not through 'shoulda, coulda, woulda' speeches, but rather by enacting real legislation and pointing to concrete results. And all eyes will be on this virtuous competition within the Republican Party. Why would anyone pay attention to the Democratic Party nomination process? Hillary Clinton cannot be defeated for the nomination, and she can't win the Presidency. Boring."

Right-wing radio host and Weekly Standard contributor Hugh Hewitt didn't exactly join forlorn Dems for a conciliatory chorus of "Kumbaya."

"The sixties ended on September 11, 2001," Hewitt said, "but they were interred on the morning of November 3, 2004, when a senator from Massachusetts played the reverse role of another senator from Massachusetts 44 years earlier. In November of 1960, John F. Kennedy had received a call from Richard Nixon, conceding the election, an act of statesmanship that still redounds to Nixon's credit. Nixon's chances of successfully waging a recount of Illinois and Texas votes were higher than Kerry's of contesting Ohio's votes, but both would have been long-shots, and both would have strained the country's reserves of civility. Both men chose well, and John Kerry's final act of Campaign 2004 was by far his best."

If Hewitt felt he was throwing Dems a bone by likening Kerry to Nixon, he outdid himself with some helpful advice on how to reanimate the liberal face of the party.

"A new left, confident of American power in the service of security at home and freedom abroad, could still emerge. Joe Biden has to be shoved aside, and Joe Lieberman elevated. Pat Leahy has to get an elbow and a talking to about how his extremism has played over two election cycles. In short, the old left has to let go, and let the new left grow up and learn to shun the nuts like Michael Moore while learning to support American foreign policy."

Aussie blogger Tim Blair took satisfaction in having predicted deep psychic pain in the losing camp.

"This site, October 26: 'Expect a windfall for shrinks if Bush wins a second term.'

"New York Newsday, November 5: 'This week, many therapists in Kerry-friendly New York found their clients left personal issues at home, instead seeking professional help for post-election political despair. Manhattan psychologist Bonnie Maslin said many of her patients cried about the lost election and the reality of the Republican victory. They talked about hopelessness. They said they felt isolated, depressed and angry.'

"It would be wrong," Blair added, "to hang around Manhattan psychologists' offices wearing all black and a Bush-Cheney cap, waiting for tearful patients to emerge, then following them while taking notes. Wrong, but fun."

And the prize for biggest flip-flopper went to Andrew Sullivan. En route to punching his ballot for Kerry last week, Sullivan had spent months savaging President Bush for his stand against same-sex marriage and for bungling the war in Iraq. But when the election went the wrong way, Sullivan apparently suffered a dramatic change of heart:

"The most fundamental fact of this campaign -- and one of the reasons it has been so bitter -- is that we are at war. Our opponents at home are not our enemies. The real enemy is the Jihadist terror network that, even now, is murdering innocents and coalition soldiers in Iraq. Our job now -- all of us -- is to support this president in that war, to back those troops, and to pray for victory ...

"I've been more than a little frustrated by the president's handling of this war in the past year; but we have to draw a line under that now. The past is the past. And George W. Bush is our president. He deserves a fresh start, a chance to prove himself again, and the constructive criticism of those of us who decided to back his opponent. He needs our prayers and our support for the enormous tasks still ahead of him. He has mine. Unequivocally."

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