A few bright spots in the fog —

Blue Dogs Go Down — Alex Pareene lists the 16 Blue Dog Democrats who voted with House Republicans against extending unemployment benefits. Only three of them are returning to Congress next year. Boo bleeping hoo.

Tea Party Losers — Just 32% of Tea Party candidates win, says NBC’s Alexandra Moe, although I can’t say I understand her calculations.

Given these two facts above, expect the punditocracy and Beltway Conventional Wisdom to decide Democrats need to move right to appease the almighty teabaggers. Whatever.

The Denver Post says Democrat Michael Bennet has won the Colorado U.S. Senate election over Republican Ken Buck. MSNBC hasn’t called it yet, I don’t think, but with 90 percent of the vote Bennet is ahead.

No one has called Washington state yet, but Patty Murray’s lead over Dino Rossi seems to be holding and has gotten a hair wider this afternoon from what it was this morning. No one seems to expect a result today, though.

It appears Dems will hang on to the Senate, although it’s close. As of this morning the Dems have 49 Senate seats and Republicans have 46. Three races are undecided, and in two of those — Colorado and Washington — the Dem is ahead by a hair but votes still are being counted.

It appears Republican Lisa Murkowski will win Alaska with write-in votes. And if the write-in votes are discounted somehow, the troglodyte GOP candidate Miller is second. So the GOP will keep Alaska, giving them 47 Senate seats.

The Dems have two independent senators who caucus with them, which gives them (in effect) 51 votes as of now, without Colorado and Washington. But one of those independents is Joe Lieberman, who may very well take this opportunity to stab his former party in the back and caucus with Republicans. It would be the Lieberman thing to do, especially if the Dems lose Colorado and Washington.

So if Lieberman switches parties, that would be 50 Dem votes and 48 Republican votes in the Senate. And then if both Washington and Colorado were to fall to Republicans, it would be a 50-50 Senate. We’d have only Joe Biden in tie-breaking capacity to tilt the votes to Dems. So keep your fingers crossed for Washington and Colorado. (Nate Silver thinks the Dems probably will keep those seats, but it’s way close.)

On the bright side, let us note that Harry Reid’s win in Nevada was made possible only by the tea-party inspired nomination of the worst possible Republican candidate. And need I say — Christine O’Donnell? Were it not for the crazies in the Tea Party, Republicans had a real shot at taking back the Senate as well as the House. GOP party elites may be fantasizing about “second amendment solutions” to its tea party problem this morning.

Another bright light in the gloom is that Barbara Boxer will keep her California seat. And good luck being governor again, Jerry Brown!