Mike DeWine

I can't wait for the Republican fingerpointing to begin. I can't wait so much I want to start it myself!

My Monday-morning questions for Karl Rove: Why didn't you sacrifice everything else to try and hold the Senate? Howard Dean had a 50-state srategy, you should have had a 5-state strategy: Montana, Virginia, Missouri, Tennessee, Rhode Island. Right now it looks like you won one of those, and you needed two. How bad was your polling—why didn't you understand ten days ago that you had lost the House and forget about it? Most important, you famously abandoned Mike DeWine in Ohio, and good for you, but why didn't you abandon Pennsylvania? DeWine lost by 12 points but next door, even as the conservative websites were saying he was competitive, Rick Santorum lost by nearly 60/40. Santorum got absolutely crushed—in the most expensive race in Pennsylvania history. Why didn't you know this? Why did you put one nickel in Pennsylvania when power was inching out of your grasp in smaller markets?

Democrats are now one-third of the way to claiming the Senate for the first time since 2001, with Sherrod Brown knocking off Mike DeWine in Ohio and Bob Casey, Jr. dethroning Pennsylvania'a Rick Santorum. Neither of these results are surprising -- Santorum has not led in a single public poll over the last 22 months, and national Republicans actually pulled resources out of DeWine's effort last month.

But the six-seat gain Democrats need to reclaim the majority is very much within sight right now. In New Jersey, Robert Menendez has held off Republican Tom Kean, preserving for the Democrats a seat that appeared to be in serious jeopardy last month, when news of a federal criminal probe of Menendez leaked from the U.S. Attorney's office.

All eyes are now on Virginia, Rhode Island, Missouri, Montana, Tennessee and Arizona. Win four of those, and Democrats have their majority-- assuming, of course, that they retain Maryland, where final results could take a few days.

-- Steve Kornacki

We're hearing rumors (okay, we've seen the invite) that U.S. Senator Mike DeWine will be parachuting into the city next Monday, June 26, to raise some old fashioned New York cash for his November re-election bid.

The fund-raiser will take place at the 21 Club -- one of the original old-boy hangouts -- where guests will pay $1,000 for lunch or $2,100 if they want to rub shoulders with Mr. DeWine & Co. at a pre-lunch VIP reception. The hosts include such Wall Street sugar daddies as Citigroup CEO Chuck Prince, JPMorgan Chase chairman Bill Harrison, and Goldman Sachs executive veep Ed Forst, as well as GOP musclemen Senator John Sununu, Senator Chuck Hagel, and Congressman Michael Oxley.

Given DeWine's position on gay marriage -- he's one of the guys who sponsored the amendment banning same-sex marriage -- we doubt he'll be flying in a day early to cheer on the marchers at next Sunday's Pride parade down 5th Avenue. In fact, we doubt he'll be seeing much of New York at all beyond the cool interiors of '21' and his Town Car. But you never know.

-- Lizzy Ratner