Smash hit

One Republican winner, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, is widely expected to become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which holds confirmation hearings on court nominees.

However, Democrats took solace in the landslide claimed by Barack Obama, the half-Kenyan star of Illinois whose relative youth, moderate positions and inspiring speeches have drawn predictions that he may one day run for higher office.

The only black member of the new Senate warned Republicans that their majority, while increased, was not large enough to allow the party to press on regardless of the opposition. “You still need 60 votes in the Senate to make things happen,” Senator Obama said. “The Republicans don’t have 60 votes. My hope would be that they recognise that, and the Democrats are willing to serve as a loyal opposition.”

As Democrats licked their wounds, and before Mr Bush’s victory was official, he adopted a presidential tone of his own as he appealed to the future winner to reach across party lines. “Step back and try to be a little bit humble about the state of your victory,” he said. “I don’t think any of us can say confidently that we have all the answers.”

Some analysts said that there were enough moderate Republicans in the Senate to prevent Mr Bush from imposing an overwhelmingly conservative agenda. “I think they will tend to pull legislation back to the centre before they will support it,” said Professor Strahan.

Democrats hoped that a defection from the Republican camp would help their cause. The Rhode Island Senator, Lincoln Chafee, said before the vote that he would consider switching sides if Mr Bush were re-elected.

But Neil Siegel, a law professor at Duke University, who clerked for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Bill Clinton’s appointee to the court, reflected the fears of some Democrats when he said there was “some reason to fear the worst”, given that Mr Bush had, in his view, failed to secure a clear mandate in 2000 and “governed as if he had one”.

In the event, the Republican Party also retained the House of Representatives, marking the first time since the Thirties that it had won 12 consecutive years of dominance in the lower House. Nearly all sitting representatives in the 435-member House were re-elected, leaving Speaker Dennis Hastert, Tom DeLay and the Republican majority he leads firmly in charge. What Mr Bush did for his victory by appealing to conservatives on gay marriage and abortion, Mr DeLay did for his party’s majority in Congress by redrawing district lines in Texas.

Mr DeLay’s push to redraw constituency lines in Mr Bush’s home state kicked four veteran Texan Democrats out of office. The Democrats had only one upset to celebrate — the removal of Philip Crane of Illinois, the party’s longest-serving member.

In Kentucky, Nick Clooney, the father of the actor George Clooney, lost his bid for a House seat.

By late yesterday, the Republicans had picked up three seats and the Democrats lost two to stand at 229 to 200 seats with one independent who votes Democrat. But Mr Bush’s party, which needs a majority of only 218 to control the House, was ahead in another four races while the Democrats led in one. The standing before the elections was 227 to 205 with the independent and two seats that had vacated by retiring Republicans.

The deepest cut for Democrats came in Texas, where Mr DeLay’s slick gerrymandering cost Charles Stenholm and Martin Frost, a former party leader, and Max Sandlin and Nick Lampson, their seats.

Collectively they had served 68 years in the House. The redrawing of the districts is to be reviewed by the Supreme Court. Ironically, Chet Edwards, whose district includes Mr Bush’s Crawford ranch, survived the vote.

Times Recommends

• Times Charity Appeal: SolarAid
• Is it Black Monday all over again for Dubai?
• Behind the scenes at the biggest deal