Midterm elections help Pelosi, hurt Rove

WINNERS: Lobbyists. They thrive in the dual and dueling centers of power that exist in a divided government, and groups such as teachers' and public employees' unions will find a warmer welcome from the new congressional leadership.

LOSERS: Lobbyists. Those of Republican persuasion lose influence and those of any political leaning who play close to the ethical edge should - in theory - get the cold shoulder. Scrutiny will be intense on House Democrats to live up to their promise to lead the most honest and open Congress in history.

WINNER: Speaker-in-waiting Nancy Pelosi has an Armani suit so nice she's worn it for years - a blue-gray pantsuit and complementary blouse seen in her first news conference since Election Day and as far back as 2003. Her husband, Paul, known as Mr. P, picks out her wardrobe because, he says, "she hates to shop."

LOSERS: Impolitic remarks. Democrat John Forbes Kerry, who unintentionally implied that dumb Americans end up fighting in Iraq; and George Felix Allen, who could never live down "macaca," saw presidential prospects dim as a result of their miscues.

WINNER: Blue, the color of the Democratic Party and of the ties worn by President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday in an apparent tribute to the Democratic leaders they met. "I was hoping you would notice that," Bush said, after Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin commented on the tie choice.

LOSER: John Bolton appears to be out as U.N. ambassador.

WINNERS: Both parties are looking eagerly to Republican James A. Baker III and Democrat Lee Hamilton to come up with something to help the U.S. out of the morass of the Iraq war in the coming report of their bipartisan Iraq study group.

LOSERS: Officials overseeing secretive detention and surveillance programs may be called to testify.

WINNER: Big Lug. Democrat Chet Culver, fondly nicknamed Big Lug by his wife, won his race for Iowa governor.

LOSER: Big Oil. Democrats are expected to try to force oil companies to renegotiate leases that allowed them to avoid royalty payments, and to roll back some $2.8 billion in tax breaks. Chances of allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, migratory grounds of northern caribou, have vanished.

WINNER: Spicy fiction. Jim Webb's old novels, some with sexually explicit passages played up by opponents, came back into fashion - the paperback version of his 28-year-old "Fields of Fire" breaking into the top 200 books sold by Amazon.com. (Allen's campaign-year book was 704,850 on the chart on the day he conceded.)

LOSER: China, because Democrats are more hostile to trade with it.

WINNERS: Trial lawyers are probably off the hook on Bush's attempts to rein in medical malpractice awards.

LOSER: All things associated with Cheney, including his former employer, Halliburton Co.

WINNER: San Francisco, the Pelosi hometown that GOP attack ads love to hate.

LOSER: Washington, D.C. The scandal-scarred capital that voters love to hate.

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