Democratic incumbents never had it so good.
In a two-party system, voters can opt every two years to throw some rascals out and throw other rascals in. On Nov. 7, an unhappy electorate decided to do just that in scores of races across the nation — but only to Republican rascals.
To the extent voters based their decision on matters for which the GOP leadership on Capitol Hill was responsible, it can be understood why they gave new Democrats a chance.
And we are not that surprised that happened to some legislative GOP incumbents in West Virginia, where registered Democrats enjoy a 2-1 edge. However, at the very same time: Why not Democratic incumbents, too?
Overall, Republicans lost ground in both houses of the Legislature last week. Democrats will start the 2007 session with 72 seats in the 100-member House, up from 68. They increased their total in the 34-seat Senate from 21 to 23.
But far more perplexing than what happened to the state's legislative GOP incumbents were the returns on the state's congressional delegation — a virtual rerun of every race some of them have ever run.
The lone contradiction was the return of two-term Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, who was one of the few Republican incumbents to win re-election.
Sometimes we get the feeling that all a Byrd and a Mollohan has to do is just be on the ballot and they win.
Nevermind that the state continues to wallow in the 49th and 50th rankings in virtually every economic and social indicator that comes to mind.
Nevermind that questions of ethics and federal investigations have hounded Rep. Alan Mollohan since last spring. Nevermind that the earmarks both Mollohan and Sen. Robert C. Byrd both crow about are more often than not misdirected, or rewarded to or controlled by these lawmakers' handpicked minions.
And never mind that these incumbents never engaged in a public debate of the issues before the voters, and turned the whole thing into a referendum on how things would be worse if they were not re-elected. Worse, mind you.
Many read the results of what happened nationally to the GOP as a vote on the war in Iraq, which is undoubtedly unpopular, but hardly the fault of either party.
Although some may accuse us of being partisan, our endorsements of candidates in this year's midterm election speak for themselves: five Democrats, three Republicans and in one case, we did not name a favorite because of a clear conflict of interest.
This election has popularly been described as a Democratic victory and a Republican defeat.
Yet, we cannot help but believe that most of our state's congressional races were a victory for a political machine and a defeat for the people.