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In the wake of the Democratic victories int he House and possibly the Senate last night, a few things come to mind, both good and bad.

A Self-Inflicted Wound

The root causes of last night’s Republican loss will be debated for quite some time. Without a doubt, though, the Democrats could not have won last night but for one essential fact: Congressional Republicans abandoned their core values, both as a group and individually.

As a group they voted for runaway spending, creating massive new entitlements and producing jaw-dropping waste and pork by the metric ton. Bridges to nowhere. Hoemland security funds spent on everything but. Prescription drug benefits, which benefited no one so much as the producers of precription drugs. The caucus also abandoned conservatives on hot-button issues like immigration. Mostly, though, it was the spending without end that enraged their base and convinced the independents that Republicans were hypocrites.

Individually, the incumbents succumbed to their vices, and those vices were ultimately their undoing. They choked mistresses and seduced teenagers. They took money for favors, and sometimes took money without even returning the favors. Some of them went to prison, some just ended up in rehab. But they’re gone now, and they took their party down with them. The egregious and salacious nature of their deeds served as a catalyst, driving news of Repubican failures deep into the psyches of voters who might not otherwise know or care about issues like pork or entitlement programs. The deeds of the individuals - especially the deeds which came out in October - were the final nail in the coffin the GOP had built for itself.

Shooting the Messengers

Not every incumbent who lost last night abandoned their core values - Rick Santorum comes to mind as a powerful counter-example. But they were brought down largely by the faults of their colleagues. Last night’s election was not about a rejection of conservative values, but a rejection of the incumbent’s rejection of conservative values. Race after race, Democrats with conservative positions on key issues, or with carefully-cultivated conservative images, beat or badly scared incumbent Republicans. Ford. Webb. Tester. Casey. Even independent Lieberman won because liberal Connecticut rejected the anti-war candidate Ned Lamont. If Connecticut can send a pro-war incumbent back to the Senate, then the problem with Republicans in this race wasn’t the message, it was the messengers.

It’s Just a Flesh Wound

Any surgeon understands the difference between a cut that maims and one that heals. A cut can excise a cancer or it can lacerate an artery. Today, the Republicans have been cut, and they bleed. The good news is that this cut probably is of the healing kind. These losses have cut away the worst of what afflicts Republicans - the Neys, Cunninghams, Foleys, and Sherwoods. Getting rid of the cancer oftern means taking healthy tissue from around it, and Republicans have suffered that, too. It’s too early to give the patient’s prognosis, but we know that the gains made by Democrats last night - especially in firmly Republican areas like Florida’s 16th district and Texas’s 22nd - could be reversed in ‘08 with a strong Republican candidate leader atop the ticket. Even under the rosiest Democrat scenarios for the currently undecided seats, their gains don’t come close to the fifty-four seat Republican surge in 1994. And every seat gained by the Democrats this cycle will be a vulnerable freshman in the next. So if anything, this is a time for Republicans to regroup around core values and keep looking ahead to the next election.