DEMOCRATS SWEEP HOUSE RACES!

Hey, that's no sillier a headline than Politico's "GOP Sweeps Gubernatorial Races," is it? There were a whopping two of each. And each party got a sweep. So who won the night?

Politico's right-wing spin extends to the lead sentence of its story. Emphasis mine:

Republican gubernatorial candidates racked up major wins for the GOP in Virginia and New Jersey Tuesday night as Democrats scored a single victory in a special congressional election in upstate New York.

No -- Democrats scored two victories. John Garamendi won a House seat in California and Bill Owens beat Doug Hoffman in NY-23.

Later in the Politico article we're told:

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told McDonnell supporters in Richmond that they had sent a message to national politicians: "Enough with the incredible reach of government into our lives."

Interesting, because in the two races that actually involved the national government, the government-is-the-enemy party lost.

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Look, there's egg on my face. I ignored that California contest in my recent posts, and I really blew it on NY-23. The lesson I take from the New York race is that there's a limit to how much BS Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and the other wingnuts can shovel before reasonable citizens say "Enough."

Beyond that, NY-23 disproves one of the wingnut right's core beliefs, articulated by Rush Limbaugh for years: that (as he told us in 2007) "It is when Republicans do not campaign as conservatives that they lose," that (as Limbaugh fan Dick Cheney said in spring '09) "We win elections when we have good solid conservative principles to run upon."

That's what these guys always say: the right didn't lose in 2006 in 2008; Republicans -- sellout liberal Republicans (like, y'know, John McCain) -- lost.

Well, the right lost in NY-23 yesterday.

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But wait -- no! The right won! Just ask Michelle Malkin!

As I've repeated many times over the last several weeks:

One thing is guaranteed at the conclusion of the NY-23 special congressional election: The Beltway Republicans who endorsed radical leftist Dede Scozzafava are going to have indelible egg stains on their faces....

... Hoffman may have lost narrowly, but NY-23 is a much broader victory for conservatives....

... NY-23 is a victory for conservatives who refuse to be marginalized in the public square by either the unhinged left or the establishment right. A humble accountant from upstate New York exposed the hypocrisy of GOP leaders....

The GOP leadership knows it cannot afford to rest on its laurels, continue business as usual, and bask in yesterday's electoral victories without confronting its abysmal abdication of principled conservative leadership in NY-23.

As Hoffman said in his concession speech, "This is only one fight in the battle."

Onward. Upward. Rightward.

All emphasis in the original.

Translation: the GOP establishment won two elections, therefore it lost. We suffered a humiliating defeat in the election we made into a showcase of our principles and our muscle -- therefore we won.

Onward? Hey, Michelle, don't let me stop you.