You're going to hear a lot from Republicans in the next few days over the fact that the Republican, Jean Schmidt, won the Ohio Congressional District 2 special election over Democrat Paul Hackett. It was a closely watched race and was considered to be a bellwether for the 2006 election.

As they say this portends future victories, please remind them that Ohio's 2nd Congressional District is among the most Republican in the state. In 2004, Rob Portman, the Republican congressional candidate, won with 72% of the vote.

Yesterday, Schmidt got 52%.

In southern Ohio.

I'd have liked to have picked up the seat, but that didn't happen. The next best thing is cutting 20% out of the GOP's vote totals.