Overstrained Metaphor Alert
No, not Eric Raymond, me. He said, "The Democratic Party fell off a cliff last night."

I say: They've been falling off that cliff for a long time. They overbalanced when they tied their fortunes to Bill Clinton. The Wellstone funeral was the moment when they lost final contact with the ground and went tumbling into mid-air -- that last eternal moment when they might have been able to catch themselves before going over.

Tuesday's election was the beginning of the big splat at the bottom of the cliff. The splatter and shock waves have only begun. And the party is only now coming to a realization that they have fallen: They still don't perceive how far and how hard. But they will.