Michael Barone - Top 5 lessons from yesterday's elections

1) Appropriators lost.

2) Tea tastes good.

3) The unambiguous 53%-44% victory of Democrat Mark Critz over Republican Tim Burns in the Pennsylvania 12 special election should be a caution to Republicans.

4) The left wing of the Democratic party is not rolling over and playing dead

5) Increasing polarization in our politics

Read the full story at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Some-thoughts-on-the-May-elections-94260759.html

Editorial: Twilight of the Establishment

Voters are taking baseball bats to the idols of American politics. Incumbents should be very afraid, as Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., already learned. The candidates themselves are not the only endangered idols. Party bosses and traditional power players in American politics also find their positions threatened. Pennsylvania's SEIU and AFL-CIO demonstrated their powerlessness in their all-out effort on Specter's behalf. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a main architect of the Kentucky Republican Party and a long-time GOP leader in the U.S. Senate, couldn’t deliver 40 percent of the primary vote to his hand-picked candidate.

The most fragile idol of all appears to be President Obama. Like McConnell, Obama remains popular with his base, but his ability to sway voters' opinions appears to be non-existent.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Editorial-Twilight-of-the-Establishment-94265569.html