Victories Suggest Wider Appeal of Tea Party  —  The Tea Party victories by Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida underscored the extent to which Republicans and Democrats alike may have underestimated the power of the Tea Party, a loosely-affiliated, at times ill-defined …

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

Buck, Bennet deadlocked in Senate race  —  Incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet and Republican challenger Ken Buck remained locked in the country's closest U.S. Senate race as the vote tally stretched into Wednesday morning.  —  The race, which most polls predicted would be tight, lived up to expectations.

Prop. 19 headed to defeat, exit polls show  —  California voters appear to have rejected Prop.  19, an effort to legalize marijuana and allow local governments to tax the sale of the drug.  —  Prop. 19 received national attention, but relatively little money was spent on the campaign.

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).

BUSH/LAUER EXCERPTS  —  MATT LAUER SITS DOWN WITH PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH IN HIS FIRST ONE-ON-ONE TV INTERVIEW SINCE LEAVING THE OVAL OFFICE  —  EXCERPTS FROM INTERVIEW BELOW - IF USED, MUST CREDIT NBC NEWS “MATT LAUER REPORTS” WITH AIRDATE  —  MORE EXCERPTS TO BE RELEASED WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3

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!

White House aide: President Obama will heed election message  —  The White House is sending a “we-get-it” message following Tuesday's Republican romp.  —  A top aide to President Barack Obama said not to look for a change in his “fundamental principles, but certainly there were messages that have to be heeded, and we will.”

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 47 or 48 in the Senate.  This is a huge victory: the Republican House majority will be the largest since 1928.

Looking Like It Could Be 53  —  As of now the Democrats have 51 Senate seats in the win column.  Alaska seems like a battle between two Republicans, with Lisa Murkowski the apparent winner, though with write-ins there's no telling.  That leaves Washington state and Colorado.

Toomey captures seat of his old nemesis, Arlen Specter  —  Pat Toomey has won his race against Rep. Joe Stestak (D) and captured the Senate seat that Sen. Arlen Specter held for 30 years.  —  The victory is sweet vindication for Toomey who narrowly lost a bitterly contested GOP primary race …

What the Wave Giveth, The Wave Taketh Away  —  Analysis by Amy Walter: At a very basic level, the 2010 election was simply the flip side of the 2006 coin.  Partisans motivated by their dislike of the current administration combined with a soured independent vote to turn the blue map red.