Lest we all forget, it was a scant 8 years ago the Republican party kept control of the House and took control of the Senate during the mid-term elections of 2002. So we had a Republican President and a Republican majority in the House and Senate - something of a mandate, wouldn't you say?

And suddenly the Democrats were labeled as the Party Of No and the ones with no ideas. Funny what happens when the shoe suddenly winds up on the other foot. Majority Speaker Dennis "I-have-never-been-gay" Hastert had a few telling, and somewhat ironic comments on the day after, during his interview with NPR's Bob Edwards from Morning Edition and their wrap up of the previous days activities

Dennis Hastert: “I think the Healthcare issue is an important issue and I think we may certainly move forward on pharmaceuticals again, but Healthcare is something I t hink we really need to focus on.”

Bob Edwards (NPR): “What do you think happened to the Democrats this election?”

Dennis Hastert: “Well, ya know I don’t think they had a message. And you know, they had a new message or trying to find a silver bullet every week and nothin’ stuck. And, you know they had just been against everything and hadn’t been for anything and I think that’s hurt ‘em.”

Edwards: “Well, with the election over maybe they can get a little more aggressive.”

Hastert: “Well, we’ll see. I hope that we would be able to join hands and work with them on some things.”

And there was Trent Lott's bon mot:

Trent Lott: “We can do things to help people with their retirement security. We can finally, hopefully quit just talking about helping elderly poor that need prescription drugs and get something done. We can get a Homeland Security Department done. It won’t be easy. The Senate moves very slowly and quite often you need 60 votes to make anything happen, but I accept the challenge.”

The irony.