ON THE BRIGHT SIDE... The more horrible governance I live through, the easier it gets. While it's true that there are more self-evident nuts among the new Republican crew than in the recent past, I remember Bob Dornan and William Scott. Crazy's been in the mix a long time.

The animating principle of most of our political leaders is always the acquisition of power for themselves and ROI for their major contributors, which goes a great way toward explaining which lunatic ideas they work hard for and which they just flaunt (as the Republicans have flaunted their anti-abortion credentials for decades without ever pushing through a Human Life Amendment).

The Tea Party has been a great schtick for the GOP -- a bunch of rallies, some don't-tread-on-me talk, and suddenly the people who screwed the economy are elected as its saviors! Now comes the exciting part: While Reagan restored American greatness and the fortunes of the Republican Party and its backers by looting the treasury and screwing the poor, today both the treasury and the poor are tapped out. I can make predictions about what distraction they'll come up with when that reality hits -- Impeachment? Anti-Muslim legislation? Michele Bachmann-style anti-Americanism hearings? -- but though the broad outlines are clear, the details can still surprise us.

So if the next few years promise nothing else good, at least it'll offer a great show. It would have been nice to live in America's glory days, when gas was cheap, the living easy, and the top tax rate 91 percent, but this was not our lot, so we must make the best of what we've got. The old curse about interesting times has fallen on us, but at least they're interesting.

UPDATE 2. Also on the bright side, Tony Avella seems to have won his race against Frank Padavan. Avella was one of the few city council members who fought back at all against the Bloomberg crap, and he's a decent, honorable guy. The state senate is badly in need of people like him.

Oh, and my change in jurisdiction allowed me to vote for Charlie Rangel. I really enjoyed filling in that oval.

I'm glad Jerry Brown won, too. He's one of the few well-known American politicians who are intrinsically interesting. Maybe he'll cut ties with Washington and negotiate trade agreements with the Far East.

UPDATE 3. I see Staten Island Democrat Michael McMahon, who had Vito Fossella's old seat and is as conservative a Democrat as ever drew breath, was beaten by a Tea Party nut. Across America, actually, it seems that conservative (aka Blue Dog) Democrats are doing badly. It may be that the end of moderate Republicanism is followed by the end of moderate Democrats.

UPDATE 4. Watching msnbc, I see S.E. Cupp telling the folks that she doesn't understand why Nevadans voted for Reid, or why Catholics voted for Obama. There is much she doesn't know, which makes her perfect for television, as does her recent tendency to dress and make up like a Japanese schoolgirl.