AH, FINALLY, THE LIGHT GOES ON - AT 8:29 A.M. ET:  The Politico reports that Democrats in Congress are looking around, deciding that they like the furniture and dining room, and figuring out ways to keep their jobs: 

Election Day losses in Virginia and New Jersey have congressional Democrats focused like never before on jobs — their own.

While the White House and party leaders are urging calm, Democratic incumbents from red states and Republican-leaning districts are anything but; Tuesday's statehouse defeats have left them acutely aware that their votes on health care reform and other major Obama initiatives could be career-enders in 2010 or beyond.

“I should be nervous,” said Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Huntsville, Ala.

I would say so.  Alabama isn't known as Pelosi country.

House Democrats, forced to take a tough vote on a controversial cap-and-trade climate change bill in June, may have to vote as earlier as this weekend on the even more controversial health care bill.

And...

Democratic Sen. Jim Webb — who watched Republican Bob McDonnell and other statewide candidates erase years of Democratic gains in his home state of Virginia — said Tuesday’s results show that Republicans are “energized from what happened last year” but also that “people up here on our side need to get their message straighter, too.”

"Slow down" seems to be the message that moderate Democrats are sending to their leaders, some of whom are far more sensitive to the party's left wing:

As Pelosi’s office ordered members to stay in town for a possible Saturday night House vote on health care, other Democrats were suggesting that it's time to take the foot off the gas.

As members came to grips with the election returns, Rep. Frank Kratovil Jr. (D-Md.) said he wants “as much time as I possibly can [have] to review both sides and make the best decision I can make” on the health care bill.

In other words, he's got to be against the current version.  Not good news for Nancy.

Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, the lone Republican to vote for a health care bill, said Tuesday’s results should slow Democrats down on health care — and “certainly gives pause on how you approach things.”

If they've lost Olympia...

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who’s threatened to filibuster the health care bill if it isn’t changed before it goes to a vote, said he’s sensing that public fears over the rising national debt “may affect” the Democrats’ broader agenda, noting that there’s been “a very large and quick move of independents” away from the Democratic Party and that public fears of the rising debt are at a “tipping point.”

COMMENT:  The House vote on health care, if it actually comes this Saturday, will be the first post-election test of the moderates' fears.  I wouldn't be shocked if the vote is postponed.  If it's held, that means that Nancy Pelosi believes she has the numbers to win.

Historically, moderates have often caved in to the leadership at the last minute.  Watch the action during the next two days.  It could tell us a great deal about the fate of the Obama agenda.

November 5, 2009