I attended the Republican election night party at the Bellevue Hyatt Regency last night, snapping away. A pretty ugly election for Republicans, and it is certain to be trumpeted as a total repudiation of everything they have done for the last six years, but historically a sixth year election is always difficult for a party in power. Actually, so is a second and a fourth year, but Republicans made great gains in both of those years.

It still makes it hard to see Mike McGavick lose to the likes of Cantwell. But he was gracious and upbeat as always at the party.

Dave Reichert seems to be holding a lead over the “Seattle” candidate in the 8th District (sarcasm hint: the 8th District does not include Seattle, ok?) I worked at Microsoft, and I want to assure you that a “Program Manager” is not an “Executive” over there.

Former Governor (all too briefly) Dino Rossi showed up, to chants of “Run, Dino, run!”

Kathy Lambert and Rob McKenna also spoke.

John Carlson was there near the end. I felt sorry for him, he was going to have to face Schram in the morning. Never easy, all the more so after a night like this one. But I know he can handle it.

Slade Gorton, whose narrow loss to Cantwell caused Washington’s power ranking in the Senate to plummet, made an appearance. Turns out I had been photographing his daughter Becky and grandchildren for over a year at local horse shows without realizing they were related. They all ride darn good, by the way.

Of course, Tim Eyman was there. If you are spiritually sensitive, you can see the halo around his head in this special Kirlian photograph.

The intrepid Sharkansky was there blogging the results on Sound Politics, when he wasn’t being grabbed by one of the media folks for an interview.

And finally, I will leave you with the best quote from the night.

The Republicans think of every day as the 4th of July. The Democrats think of every day as the 15th of April.

The full gallery of pictures is here.