So where do Republicans stand after the election? From where I’m sitting, in a fairly good place. If they had to win only one chamber, I’d rather them win the House. Obviously, the Senate would have just been the icing on the cake, but being in control of the Senate these days is not all it’s cracked up to be (as I’ll cover in a bit).  Here’s a few reasons why I think the new power structure is good for them:

The Budget

Owning the House will give Republicans the ability to slice and dice the budget. It annoys me a lot that Democrats didn’t even bother to take it up this year. The Republicans will surely not make that mistake next year, if only because they’ll wish to cut a lot out of it. There may be gridlock when it gets to the Senate and/or the President, but at the very least they will look at it, unlike the Democrats.| MORE ›

In my last post, I incorrectly described the California Senate race as shaping between Boxer and Fiorina. Because — mostly — my attention has been off the race, I had the wrong impression of what was going on. Fiorina still has a primary challenge and a tough campaign to mount against her competition if she’s to win. Tom Campbell, her main opponent, has consistently polled ahead of her.| MORE ›

When Sarah Palin announced she would resign as governor of Alaska later this month, many ‘experts’ thought this meant she would retire from politics altogether. It took her a while, but one week after making the surprise announcement, Palin says ‘no way’:| MORE ›

This is good news:

For those writing Republican centrism’s obituary after Arlen Specter’s party switch, holster your quills.

In fact, if the next few weeks go well for the GOP, it might pave the way for a whole new chapter in the left flank of the right-leaning party.| MORE ›

The Philidelphia Inquirer has a fantastic article up about the polling numbers Senator Arlen Specter saw shortly before he switched from the Republican to the Democratic Party. In short: these numbers and the conversations the PI had with several insiders show that Specter had only one reason to defect – he wanted to hang on to his seat in the Senate.| MORE ›

Senator Arlen Specter is in trouble at home in Pennsylvania. A conservative, former Congressman Pat Toomey, has said he wants to challenge him for the nomination of his party, the GOP. Normally, sitting senators are only challenged by ambitious individuals from the other party. Not so with Specter.| MORE ›

Charlie Crist just joined the ranks of best fundraisers in America:

After President Barack Obama made history with a vast online network of small donors, Crist raised a record-breaking $4.3 million.

He did it the old-fashioned way — one big personal check at a time — dwarfing the two other major candidates, Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Kendrick Meek.| MORE ›

Good news for those of us who believe that Senator Harry Reid is extremely liberal and that the U.S. would be better off with somebody else as Senate Majority Leader:

Nearly half of Nevadans have had enough of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as the powerful Democrat heads into his re-election campaign, a new Las Vegas Review-Journal poll finds.| MORE ›

When Senator Arlen Specter defected to the Democratic Party last week, he explained he did so because internal polling showed he would lose the GOP’s primary election to Congressman Pat Toomey, who challenged the fiscally liberal 79-year old for his seat.

The most recent polls among Republican voters had Specter trailing by 21%. Indeed, a significant gap.| MORE ›

Politico reports that Senator Chris Dodd – who has lost a lot of support in his home state Connecticut – is planning a major political recovery plan.

And God knows he needs it. He currently enjoys a disapproval rating of 58%. Although Congress as a whole is quite unpopular, few senators can count on such dismal ratings.| MORE ›

AP reports for Hot Air that lefty political analyst John Heilemann believes so:| MORE ›