Yes, Democrats scored some big legislative victories in Congress over the last two years and, as President Obama noted earlier in the week, the Dems were able to overcome “gridlock” (in no small part because they commanded the majority of the House and Senate) and push through some big bills at the end of their 111th session. However, the next two years will be another story, as the GOP gains major ground in both houses and aims for the White House in 2012. –KA

The New York Times:

It was a dizzying, maddening, agonizing, exhilarating, arduous, bruising and, for scores of Democrats, ultimately career-ending journey from the stimulus to Start — and the party paid a devastating price for its accomplishments, losing control of the House and six Senate seats.

It is a period that will no doubt be pored over by historians for years.

But it is already clear that much of the next two years will be spent fighting over what was done in the past two.

“They have been enormously successful in one sense in passing their legislative agenda,” Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said of Democrats. “The problem is the country just doesn’t like it very much.”

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