How are conservative bloggers handling the Republican defeat last night? Not at all well, it seems. Here’s a brief sample of what the wingnuts are saying to each other:

Tribemike at Free Republic:

“Nice Guys” finish last….inevitable. You are either perceived as weak or lacking passion.

Notice how Democrats move LOCK STEP AGAINST ANYTHING Republicans do…Bush do anything right? IMPOSSIBLE !

On the other hand, Republicans are constantly reaching out, accommodating, deferential…GAG, GAG, GAG.

“Wrong Direction” polls – Democrats state something like 90-10 on that one…they concede NOTHING and simply REFUSE to be ruled by republican anything. Republicans just try to get along.

Someone on this forum said politics is a bloodsport – so true. Democrats are ALWAYS on the attack while Republicans try to play nice and find the noble intention in their enemies somewhere.

To not hold the Senate is inexcusable. All the close races lost (VA, Montana, Missouri)…unbelievable

Pam at Atlas Shrugs

Latest results show the Dems grabbed the house. I was wrong. Score one for the Jihad media and Islamists the world over. It seems America is destined to learn the hard way. Thought the bloody reality of the Global Jihad was more powerful than leftist propaganda. Like I said, I was wrong.

Charles Johnson at little green testicles

Here we have our last open thread for the 2006 election. With the House in Democrat control, we can expect to see flying subpoenas and impeachment hearings, and big parties across the Middle East.

Captain Ed at Captain’s Quarters

This is a big loss, and it will hurt the GOP and the Bush administration. Even if we do hold the Senate, we will have to find compromise candidates for the federal bench, and also look forward to more taxes and regulation. Free trade is a goner. The prosecution of the war on terror will get limited by a probable repeal of the Patriot Act, or at least an attempt to do so, and I’m very sure the Democrats will move to defund the operations in Iraq by a date certain in order to force a “phased redeployment”.

And that’s not even counting the myriad investigations that Democrats will launch against the Bush administration. Republicans will keep it from getting out of hand, but the Democrats will want to build enough damaging allegations to win again in 2008.

However, in terms of policy at least, the American people have spoken. The majority endorsed these views, and now we have to see them play out. We can certainly criticize it — and we will — but we have to respect the voice of the American electorate. They wanted a different direction, and now they have to experience its consequences.

Michelle Malkin

Conservatism did not lose

… The GOP lost. Conservatism prevailed. “San Francisco values” may control the gavels in Congress, but they do not control America. Property rights initiatives limiting eminent domain won big. MCRI, the anti-racial preference measure, passed resoundingly. Congressman Tom Tancredo, the GOP’s leading warrior against illegal immigration–opposed by both the open-borders Left and the open-borders White House–won a fifth term handily. Gay marriage bans won approval in 3 states. And as of this writing, the oil tax initiative, Prop. 87–backed by deep-pocketed Hollywood libs, is trailing badly in California.

Hugh Hewitt

I have to assume that the Dems will get the Senate as well as the House, though Conrad Burns may be able to pull off an upset, in which case I hope the GOP in the Senate reject the silly rules they agreed to the last time the body was 50/50. They got no cooperation from Dems over the past two years, and if by good luck and the Veep’s vote they have the majority, they have got to begin to use it.

The long and short of this bad but not horrific night was that majorities must act like majorities. The public cares little for the “traditions” of the Senate or the way the appropriations process used to work. It demands results. Handed a large majority, the GOP frittered it away. The chief fritterer was Senator McCain and his Gang of 14 and Kennedy-McCain immigration bill, supplemented by a last minute throw down that prevented the NSA bill from progressing or the key judicial nominations from receiving a vote. His accomplice in that master stroke was Senator Graham. Together they cost their friend Mike DeWine his seat in the Senate, and all their Republican colleagues their chairmanships. Senator McCain should rethink his presidential run. Amid the ruins of the GOP’s majority there is a clear culprit.

A second loser was Bill Frist. To be the Majority Leader of a majority that did not lead is lethal to his presidential ambitions. Like Senator McCain, it would be easier on everyone if he just exited the stage.

President Bush will not flag in the pursuit of the war, and Senator Santorum is now available for a seat on the SCOTUS should one become available. GOP senators will have the chance to select leadership equal to the new world of politics which, as the past two years have demonstrated, does not reward timidity.

Jonah Goldberg at The Corner (National Review Online)

How Bush Should Handle Loss [Jonah Goldberg]
I think James Baker and Dick Cheney should take Bush out to the woods around Camp David. After 24 hours in a sweat lodge, he should be given only a loin cloth, a hunting knife and a canteen of water. Bush should then set out to track and kill a black bear, after which he should eat its still beating heart so he can absorb its spirit. He should then fly back to Washington in Marine 1. His torso still scratched from the bear’s claws, his face bloodied and steaming in the November chill, he should immediately give a press conference at which he throws the bearskin on the front row of the press corps, completely enveloping Helen Thomas, declaring, “I’m not going anywhere.“

This will send important messages to Democrats and well as to our enemies overseas, who are no doubt high-fiving as we speak.

And with that image of Helen Thomas covered in Bush’s bloody bearskin rug still dancing in my head, I bid our friends from Right Wingnut World a very fond farewell.