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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Iowa voters oust justices who made same-sex marriage legal  —  (CNN) — Voters in Iowa chose to remove three high court justices who helped make Iowa the first Midwestern state to permit same-sex marriage.  —  The vote marks the first time a member of the Iowa Supreme Court has been rejected …

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.

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 …

Pelosi to discuss her future in interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer  —  Outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) will sit for an interview Wednesday with ABC News as House Democrats wait for a decision on her future in Congress.  —  The decimated Democratic caucus is “in a holding pattern,” …

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 …

Fingerpointing, Cont'd  —  Kevin Drum writes: … I think that the model Drum relied upon is flawed in that our economic statistics understate the level of misery in the country.  I could point to tactical and strategic political errors that exacerbated the result a bit …

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 …

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).

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 …

Prank!  GOP leaves a gift at Democratic HQ  —  In 1992, a life sized donkey was placed at the front door of the Republican National Committee offices.  It was a fitting prank in a year when Democrats took the White House and retained majorities in the House and Senate.  —  Last night, Republicans got payback.

A Lost Generation  —  Obama deserved to lose—but the country doesn't deserve the consequences.  —  Asked on Monday to assess the significance of the coming Democratic defeat, Tim Kaine, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, tried to portray this election as fairly typical.

Barack Obama sex doll for sale in China  —  Americans may have fallen out of love with Barack Obama, but the president of the United States is still an object of affection for the Chinese, who have remodelled him as a blow-up sex doll.  —  A doll wearing a dark blue suit and red tie …

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:

Morning Jay: Special “The Morning After” Edition  —  Last night, the Republicans made history in the House of Representatives.  As of this writing, the GOP has been declared the winner in or is winning in 243 House districts.  If this number holds, it would exceed any Republican majority since 1946.

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 …