Democrats Blame White House for Losses

The bodies aren’t even cold yet in the House, but the Democratic Party has already opened up a bitter debate over who’s to blame.

The party’s bloodied moderates Wednesday released two years of pent-up anger at a party leadership they viewed as blind to their needs and deaf to the messages of voters who never asked for President Barack Obama’s ambitious first-term agenda.

Liberals pushed back hard: The problem, they say, was those undisciplined moderates, who won delays, unsightly compromises and a muddled message from a too-accommodating administration.

Yet a third group of Democratic politicians and operatives blamed not policy but a failed sales job for the party’s woes.

One thing all sides agree on: The White House blew it. - Politico Story

Calls for White House Shake up Increase

Some of the calls for a White House shake-up are now coming from inside the building.

Frustrated current and former West Wing staffers, speaking on condition of anonymity, told POLITICO they hoped Tuesday night’s humbling losses would persuade President Barack Obama to pursue a much more sweeping fix than just the “natural” post-election churn of personnel his administration has insisted will take place.

Many of those changes are already being seriously considered, among them replacing Political Director Patrick Gaspard with a former top aide to Rahm Emanuel; replacing Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina, who is expected to move to Obama’s 2012 campaign, with Legislative Affairs Director Phil Schiliro; and possibly giving White House energy czar Carol Browner expanded policy responsibilities. - Politico Story

GOP to Control Redistricting Map

A bad night for Democrats Tuesday got even worse at the local level: Republicans were on the verge of winning nearly all 17 of the state legislative chambers they had originally set out for on Tuesday, some for the first time in decades, a shift that puts the GOP in the driver’s seat when the congressional redistricting process begins early next year.

The GOP gains were most significant in the Midwest, where the party picked up state House majorities in the Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and were within striking distance of capturing legislatures in the highly-prized electoral battlegrounds of Michigan and Wisconsin. But Republicans also gained control of both chambers of the New Hampshire and North Carolina legislature, and took the Alabama legislature for the first time since Reconstruction. - Politico Story

The Fall of Nancy Pelosi

In the final days before the election that ended her hold on power, Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted Democrats would keep the House and proclaimed no regrets.

“I didn’t come here to keep a job. I’m here to do a job,” she told an adoring crowd in San Francisco.

The statement was vintage Pelosi, reflecting the unbowed and uncompromising attitude that won her the speaker's gavel and the defiant stubbornness that helped her lose it. - Politico Story

Voters Restore Balance to Washington

Voters Tuesday tore apart the complex map of America President Barack Obama proudly displayed after his 2008 victory, driving Democrats from office in rural areas, the suburbs and virtually the entire South — and unseating a generation of powerful Democratic centrists. - Politico Story

Black Panthers at it Again?

PHILADELPHIA - Fox 29 News spotted Tuesday a member of the New Black Panther Party standing outside of a local polling place where voter intimidation was reported two years ago.

The man was seen outside the polling place in North Philadelphia was wearing a pin that indicated his party affiliation, along with a black hat, sunglasses and leather coat. - MyFoxPhilly