My friend R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. has a terrific op/ed piece in today's New York Sun. Bob hit the nail on the head:

...The Democrats' victories do not signal a liberal recrudescence in the republic. Many of the incoming Democrats ran as conservatives. That is because the conservative drift of the country continues. As many as two dozen of the newly elected Democrats ran affirming traditional social values, low taxes, or other conservative desiderata. In the long term, things continue to look bleak for the Old Order. Bob Casey, the candidate who beat Senator Santorum, is a social conservative whose father was barred from the 1992 Democratic convention because of his opposition to abortion. Jim Webb, who ran against Senator Allen, was a Reagan Republican and President Reagan's secretary of the Navy. In the House, newly elected Democrats ran as advocates of gun owners' rights and traditional values. One even signed the Americans for Tax Reform's pledge against higher taxes (three Democratic incumbents in the House and one in the Senate have done the same).....