Conservative Talkers, Feeling Just a Little Blue

"The voters gave the Republicans a well-earned kick in the gut," Atlanta radio host Neal Boortz wrote on his blog, adding that the GOP "bore little resemblance to the Republican majority that rode to power 12 years ago. In 1994 we were promised less government. Over the next 12 years the Republicans more than doubled the size of the government. . . . We were promised fiscal responsibility. We got a bridge to nowhere in Alaska."

Liberals are accustomed to dealing with big political defeats, having gotten plenty of practice in 2000, 2002 and 2004 as Democrats were relegated to minority status. Left-wing blogs have flourished, and liberal radio programs have gotten a foothold. Now conservative pundits, who have been riding high for so long, will be getting some practice.

After months of arguing that a Democratic victory would hand over the House to such scary figures as John Conyers, Barney Frank and Charlie Rangel, some conservatives now say that the winners are not just a collection of loony libs.

Attorney Scott Johnson, who writes for the popular Power Line blog, said from Minneapolis that he is "disappointed" in the voting but takes solace in the fact that "a number of conservative Democrats were elected in the House and Senate. I don't know how that plays with the antiwar, McGovernite thrust of the critique of administration foreign policy."

In certain conservative quarters, there was little effort to dispel the aura of gloom. Blogger Dean Barnett acknowledged online: "We made a case to the American people. They didn't buy it because they thought it was a weak case. And you know what? They were right. In the closing weeks of the campaign season, I felt like I was a lawyer who had a bad client while writing this blog."

But Limbaugh said he felt liberated at no longer having to "carry the water" of Republicans who don't deserve it.

For some, though, there may be a financial silver lining. Lowry noted that National Review's circulation tends to jump when the other side is in power, surging to 280,000 during the Clinton administration, only to decline to 150,000 during the Bush reign. He now expects another bump as conservatives get agitated about the Democrats' new clout in Congress.

"That doesn't mean I was rooting for Nancy Pelosi to be speaker," Lowry insists.