Republicans have officially taken Senate with nearly clean sweep of competitive races, with a similar rout in governor races.
This means an all-out war on climate, workers, and anything else that stands in the way of the Ayn Randian scorched-earth crony capitalism practiced by the Kochs and their brethren.
Moreover, Ted Cruz will likely now be the most powerful man on the Hill. Having engineered control over the House agenda through radical brinkmanship, he can now bring his methods to bear on the Senate.
Looking forward:
-- The lame-duck session will likely be a wash, as the GOPers filibuster everything. I'd love to see the Ds push messaging bills, on climate, immigration, labor, but I'd be surprised if that happens.
-- I would not be surprised if first act of GOP Senate is to end the filibuster, and rapidly force Obama to veto bills right off the bat
-- The next debt-ceiling deadline is March 2015
-- passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade monster is much much more likely
-- the GOP crazy caucus is now large -- Cruz, Paul, Ernst, Gardner, Lankford, etc.
-- every nomination at every level will be a fight to the death; with lots of appointees leaving for greener pastures / 2016 campaigns, this will be brutal to the functioning of the executive branch. Judiciary appointments will similarly stall out.
-- a Supreme Court battle could be a moment of overreach for Cruz et al.
-- The D's left in the Senate will be much more progressive than the current caucus, which should allow them to work more coherently together, unless there's too much internal sniping, fed by nasty Politico stories.
The Koch brothers' candidates - McConnell, Gardner, Ernst, Cotton- sailed to victory. They all participated in the Koch network's secret retreat in June 2014. They will likely be grateful. That said, pretty much all GOP candidates did very well, so it's not worth reading too much into this, other than recognizing that the right-wing super PACs will be getting an infusion of cash from corporations and billionaires, who will believe that success breeds success.
Democratic Senate staff will be cut drastically -- those left will need a lot of outside support.
Get ready for Cruz control.
[Update: I mistakenly wrote there would be 60 votes for a Keystone XL bill. Ernst & Gardner are the only pickups, as most of the Democrats who were defeated by Republicans already supported Keystone XL. Coons & Carper had supported a KXL resolution in the past, but are unlikely to again. It's unlikely there are 60 votes for KXL in the new Senate.]