While Republicans did knock off a number of incumbent Democrat Senators, one would think that Democrats would be celebrating taking back the House and a “good election” night. The fact of the matter is the Democrats and their liberal allies spent a great deal of time being sore losers or worse.  As Lisa Boothe writes:

The 2018 midterms crystallized one thing: The Democrat Party is the party of sore losers. Joining the ranks of Hillary Clinton - who still hasn't come to grips with the fact she lost the 2016 presidential election - Stacey Abrams, Bill Nelson, and Andrew Gillum all showed America how to lack grace in defeat.

Let’s start with Georgia Democrat Nominee for Governor Stacy Abrams.  After clearly losing she continued to claim voter suppression and gave a concession speech that only Hillary Clinton could be proud of.  As the Editors of the Weekly Standard point out:

This is the first midterm election cycle since 2002 where any incumbents of the non-presidential party lost re-election.  The Democrats lost four such races.  In part this was because of their terrible treatment of Brett Kavanaugh.  Marc Theissen wrote last week in "Kavanaugh treatment gave Senate to GOP":

It cost Democrats their chance to regain control of the Senate. And it gave Republicans an expanded Senate majority that will allow them to confirm an even more conservative justice next time around.

. . .

None of that might have been possible had it not been for the Democrats’ horrific treatment of Kavanaugh. As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell put it, the failed effort to stop Kavanaugh was “like an adrenaline shot” for the GOP base. Republican voters were outraged to see a good man accused, without a shred of corroboration, of sexually assaulting a teenage girl, exposing himself to a college classmate and participating in gang rapes in high school. They were disgusted by Senate Democrats’ insistence the burden was on Kavanaugh to prove he didn’t do it and by Democrats’ blatant disregard for the presumption of innocence. They were energized by Kavanaugh’s willingness to fight back and declare his treatment by Democrats a “national disgrace.” And they punished the perpetrators of that disgrace at the polls on Nov. 6. . . .

The lesson for Democrats should be clear: Character assassination does not pay. Quite the opposite, it backfired – big-time.

Today, President Trump gave Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor.  Senator Hatch was given the award along with six others, including the late Justice Antonin Scalia.  Senator Hatch, who is retiring, is currently the longest-serving senator and Senate President pro tempore, and voted on the confirmation of every current Supreme Court justice.

More than a week later, the full extent of the 2018 Midterm Elections is still finalizing with several important pending races across the nation. Perhaps one of the most interesting is that of Maine’s second congressional district, which is utilizing “ranked-choice voting” to elect its congressional representative—a first in the nation.

Today, in a dramatic reversal, this Maine race suddenly ended with the Democratic challenger named as the winner, despite trailing the Republican in the first round of vote counting. In just a matter of seconds, a computer algorithm reallocated voters' choices after eliminating lowest performing candidates.

We have written on this blog often on Broward County Florida Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes, but we must admit we were shocked by her statement today. 

On Tuesday, while speaking with reporters, Snipes hinted that she may not be in the job very long and said that it was "hard to rule out race" as a factor in the criticism being lobbed at her. . . .

Snipes argued on Monday that the lawsuits were nothing more than an attack on her integrity.

. . . "I have worked here for about 15 years and I have to say this is the first time that this office or I have been under such attacks," she said.

Florida is once again in the news for its election administration problems.  Of course, it is unfair to say "Florida," as it is really just a handful of counties in south Florida that perennially find it difficult to follow Florida's election laws and procedures.  Even the counties devastated by Hurricane Michael less than a month before Election Day managed to count their ballots on time.  But not Broward or Palm Beach Counties.

The RNLA is pleased to announce that Harmeet Dhillon has been named the 2018 Republican Lawyer of the Year:

The Board of Governors of the Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) has named Harmeet K. Dhillon of California the 2018 Republican Lawyer of the Year. Ms. Dhillon was selected as the 2018 Republican Lawyer of the Year in recognition of her outstanding professional accomplishments and years of service to the Republican Party and its ideals. She will be honored at a reception and luncheon at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, November 14.

New Mexico has yet again proven that the feudal system and political corruption is alive and well in the Land of Enchantment. On election night, Republican Yvette Herrell led Democrat Xochitl Torres Small by 1,972 votes and was declared a winner by several news outlets, but then the Dona Ana County Clerk found 8,000 absentee ballots that still needed to be added to the total. By the end of Wednesday, Torres Small had a substantial, 2,700 vote lead over Herrell; therefore making Torres Small the winner, not Herrell.

Today, Jeff Sessions resigned as Attorney General of the United States, and President Trump announced that Sessions' Chief of Staff, Matthew Whitaker, will be the Acting Attorney General.  Under Attorney General Sessions, the Department of Justice has returned to respecting the rule of law and enforcing and supporting the law as written, instead of pursuing a partisan agenda as it did under President Obama.

The Senate Judiciary Committee released a report into the attempted smear of then-Judge Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings.  The first paragraph is below. 

In the weeks leading up to Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation vote on October 6, 2018, investigators from the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary (“Committee”) diligently pursued all relevant allegations made against the nominee. This memorandum summarizes the Committee’s work and provides a status update on the Committee’s ongoing efforts to review and address additional matters that arose during the course of the investigation, including potential violations of Senate rules, potential witness tampering, and potential false statements made to the Committee in violation of federal law.