Democratic Big Dogs, Blue Dogs, Young Pups Swept Away

Change has turned to carnage for Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Freshmen. Veterans. East. West. North. South. Conservative. Liberal. If it was blue, it bled.

Voters who didn't believe in the change President Obama's party gave them -- economic stimulus, health care coverage, financial reform -- cashiered more of them than in possibly any midterm election since 1938. At least 60 seats in the House and a minimum of six in the Senate now belong to Republicans.

So who and what was lost in the 2010 election? A casualty list:

Big Dogs: Oodles of experience as a legislator? No need to apply. The heads of some of the most powerful committees in Congress lost their seats.

Blanche Lincoln heads the Senate agriculture committee but that didn't keep Arkansas voters from sending her out to pasture. And never mind that Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold chairs the Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution. Tea party supporters who pride themselves on thinking they know the founding document best kicked him out after three terms.

Centuries of tenure in the House have been revoked.

There are two ongoing wars and billions to be cut from the Pentagon's budget but the four top Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee, including Chairman Ike Skelton of Missouri, will not return next year. Neither will the head of the all-important House budget committee, John Spratt of South Carolina, nor the chair of the transportation and infrastructure panel, Minnesota's James Oberstar. The three committee chairman together have notched just under 100 years of experience as lawmakers.

The departure of other longtime incumbents with decades of experience and seniority on key issues is already being felt. The defeat of Pennsylvania's Paul Kanjorski, the second-ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, prompted the Wall Street Journal to note that his "wasn't just another House race" and that his loss could spell a major blow to the president's economic policy.

And at a time when Internet companies are grappling with the controversial issue of "net neutrality," the subcommittee chairman overseeing the industry, Virginia Rep. Rick Boucher, also will not be back.

"The new Congress is going to experience a tremendous loss in terms of institutional memory and experience," said Brookings Institution government expert Darrell West. "A number of members who had special expertise in defense, health care and technology will be gone and it will take the newcomers awhile to get on top of these important issues."

Blue Dogs: At least half of nearly two dozen conservative Blue Dog Democrats up for re-election in Republican-leaning districts found voters preferred their own kind this year.

Despite voting against their party on overhauling health care, Lincoln Davis of Tennessee, Glenn Nye of Virginia and 20-year veteran Chet Edwards of Texas were defeated by opponents of "Obamacare." In Mississippi, Rep. Gene Taylor lost his Gulf Coast home in Hurricane Katrina only to find his 11-term career in the House swept away by a Republican tidal wave. In North Dakota, Earl Pomeroy, the head of the rural health care coalition in Congress, was turned out after nine terms.

"Both the House and Senate will become more extreme and driven by partisanship," said University of Notre Dame American studies professor Robert Schmuhl. "Gridlock is a given."

Young Pups: Democratic freshmen lost in many places, including Maryland, Michigan, Nevada and Ohio. Several of the party's most promising members will have to find other work.

The first woman to represent South Dakota in the House, Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin, failed to win a fourth term. Patrick Murphy, the first Iraq war veteran elected to Congress and a leading opponent of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays, lost a grudge match with the GOP congressman whose Pennsylvania House seat he snagged four years ago. Freshman Tom Perriello made fast friends in the White House by sticking with the president's stimulus spending, health care and cap-and-trade policies but couldn't convince voters in his conservative southern Virginia district to stick with him.

"Some of the brightest young stars are gone," said American Enterprise Institute congressional expert Norman Ornstein.

The Solid Northeast: It took Democrats years to turn New England deep blue, ousting the few remaining centrist Republicans to color in the last House districts in 2008. Now, thanks to Democratic defeats in both New Hampshire congressional districts, a bright red wedge has been driven through the region.

Liberal Leadership: Beyond Feingold and MSNBC mouthpiece Alan Grayson in Florida, the biggest liberal loser of the night was Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Along with Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the California Democrat has served for years as a perfect foil in conservative campaign ads that this year succeeded in toppling her from her leadership post.

In a week that saw the San Francisco Giants win the World Series for the first time in more than a half-century, that city's most famous politician must deal with her party's worst drubbing in even longer. Four years ago, Pelosi became the highest-elected woman in American history. Now at 70, the independently wealthy grandmother of eight may be considering calling it quits after she hands the speaker's gavel to Republican John Boehner in January.