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 …

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.

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 …

5 Best Moments from MSNBC's Apocalyptic Night  —  Matthews asked Bachmann if she was hypnotized.  Olbermann feared the Tea Party would eat away at the Earth's core.  O'Donnell prepared for the Rand Paul end times.  WATCH VIDEO of the liberal network's most distraught moments on Election Night.

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 …

Iowa Supreme Court Justices issue statement after being ousted  —  The Iowa Supreme Court justices issued the following statement moments ago:

For immediate release  —  Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in September confirms that the pace of recovery in output and employment continues to be slow.  Household spending is increasing gradually, but remains constrained by high unemployment, modest income growth …

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.

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 said that 200 House Dems would win easily  —  Democrats failed on Tuesday night to win the “more than 200” seats a confident Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had said in the spring that they would “easily” retain.  —  “One thing I know for sure is that Democrats will retain their majority …

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 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 …

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.

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 …

Democrats lost big because young voters stayed home  —  I basically agree with Kevin Drum's take on the overall election results: Most of the losses were predicted by structural factors, but not all of them.  Democrats lost at least 15 more seats than the basic model would've predicted …

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).

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:

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 …