Listened in on the RNC conference call

Poor Ken Mehlman. This one had to be hard. He did his best to show that this off-year election didn't mean anything, but the last time things went like this was 1993, when the GOP crowed that it meant big things in 1994, and it did. Now they are trying to ignore the reality of what happened last night, spin it hard, but the numbers are identical to 1993, and that is not good news for this party.

Mehlman also had to deal with dKos "infiltrators", who mainly asked silly questions, but one person asked a great question that he totally avoided about Ahmed Chalabi, and why Congress has not attempted to subpoena him about his role in the Iraq war. When Ken dodged it, she laughed hysterically before being cut off.

Surprisingly, there was a lot of focus from reporters about Virginia, probably because the President went there Monday night, but I think Virginia is just part of the puzzle. I will say that it's a pretty big part, because it featured a Democratic candidate speaking openly about his Catholic faith (Kaine), who won counties that Bush kicked Kerry's ass in during the 2004 elections. It's a good blueprint for Democrats that they shouldn't be ashamed of religion, they should embrace it without sounding stiff (Kerry) or jumping all over it with the fervor of a Jerry Falwell.

On the whole, Mehlman did his best to put a good face on a bad situation. It's interesting that he used the term status quo for Virginia a lot, given that it's a red state that again went blue for governor. And it's interesting that he dodged California, which was a clear loss for Republicans.