Some Implications  —  First thoughts.  —  1. Nancy Pelosi will presumably step down as Democratic leader in the House.  Steny Hoyer could be challenged from the left as he seeks to move up to replace her, and he could lose—partly because the defeat of Democrats in swing districts throughout …

Iowans dismiss three justices  —  Three Iowa Supreme Court justices lost their seats Tuesday in a historic upset fueled by their 2009 decision that allowed same-sex couples to marry.  —  Vote totals from 96 percent of Iowa's 1,774 precincts showed Chief Justice Marsha Ternus and Justices David Baker …

Write-in vote lead has Murkowski smiling  —  ELECTION COULD MAKE HISTORY: Final counts may be weeks away; parnell, young post strong results.  —  scockerham@adn.com  —  Election returns Tuesday night showed Lisa Murkowski with a chance to become only the second candidate to run …

Bennet wins in Senate race  —  Appointed U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet will be elected to the U.S. Senate after pulling ahead of challenger Ken Buck this morning.  —  Long after most Coloradans — including the candidates and their supporters — had gone to bed, returns from Denver …

Live Blogging the Election Returns  —  We will be covering tonight's election returns beginning at around 5 p.m. Eastern, an hour before the first polls close in Kentucky and Indiana.  —  You can follow along here and check out our hour-by-hour, district-by-district guide for watching the returns.

Where Do Democrats Go Next?  —  DEMOCRATS can recover from the disappointments of this election and set the stage for success in 2012.  But to do so we must learn from Tuesday's results.  —  Many of our problems were foreseeable.  A public unhappy about the economy will take it out on the party in power …

The Morning Briefing: The Tsunami  —  [UPDATE]: The whole of the Maine legislator has flipped to the GOP.  Several people I have talked to said such a deep and thorough shift to any one party has not happened in one election in the past 100 years.  —  This is an unusual Morning Briefing …

Bush NBC Interview: Being Called A Racist By Kanye West The Worst Moment Of My Presidency  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? … The first excerpts of former President George W. Bush's interview with NBC New's Matt Lauer were released on Tuesday night.  And what stands among the noteworthy bits …

Michele Bachman Humiliates Chris Matthews: How's That Leg Tingle Doing Tonight?  —  Rep. Michele Bachmann went on MSNBC for an interview with Chris Matthews tonight and handled him with dismissive tone the hack deserved.  All he wanted to do was bait her with unprofessional journolisty questions …

Welcome, Senate Conservatives  —  Remember what the voters back home want—less government and more freedom.  —  Congratulations to all the tea party-backed candidates who overcame a determined, partisan opposition to win their elections.  The next campaign begins today.

Inside White House, calls for shake-up  —  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 …

Murray leads Rossi on strong King County vote  —  Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray held a lead Tuesday night over challenger Dino Rossi, raising hopes among her supporters that she would survive the national GOP wave.  —  Hundreds of Democrats who gathered at the Westin Hotel …

GOP likely to urge Obama officials not to shred documents  —  Republicans are likely to urge the Obama administration not to shred documents as they transition to the House majority.  —  Before the election, GOP officials on Capitol Hill privately discussed the issue but refrained from publicly tackling it …

The Changing Electorate  —  One reason it's difficult to read midterm elections as reflecting shifts in the “national mood” is that the actual set of voting people is quite different.  According to exit polls, for example, the relative proportion of youth voters and senior voters shifted quite dramatically:

Blue Dog Coalition Crushed By GOP Wave Election  —  What's Your Reaction: … WASHINGTON — Tuesday was a tough night for Democrats, as they watched Republicans win enough seats to take back the House in the next Congress and began to ponder life under a likely House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

Take Your Olive Branch and Shove It, Democrats  —  Here's my post-election column.  I'll continue to update the results post here as we wait on key AK, WA, CO, AZ, and Florida returns.  —  The grass-roots conservative midterm message: No surrender, no compromise, no capitulation.  —  Share you thoughts!

What comes next in a universe where the government works  —  On Feb. 5, 2011, the president signed the Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction Act of 2011 into law.  The legislation lifted the employer-portion of the payroll tax for a year, approved more than $50 billion in infrastructure investments, and cut the deficit.

Wonkbook: Welcome to gridlocked America  —  Welcome to gridlocked America: The GOP is on track to win about 65 seats in the House of Representatives, and 7 or 8 in the Senate.  This is a huge victory: the Republican House majority will be the largest since 1928.

Pence steps down as No. 3 in House GOP  —  Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) will step down from his position as chairman of the House Republican Conference, he announced on Wednesday.  —  Pence informed fellow House Republicans in a “Dear Colleague” letter that he would leave his third-ranking position within …

Rand Paul Explains His Support For Plutocracy: ‘There Are No Poor...We All Work For Rich People’  —  Last night, Kentucky elected Rand Paul (R-KY), the son of Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), to the U.S. Senate.  Speaking to CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Paul announced his intention to do anything it takes …