Washington, DC, woke up not quite knowing itself this morning. There's plenty of analysis of the big picture everywhere, but what does this mean for the politics of science and tech?

One loss was a foregone conclusion before the first ballots were cast. In March, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) announced he will retire in January after 24 years in Congress. Boehlert represents a swath of Upstate New York, including, Utica, New Hartford and Cooperstown, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. (His congressional office is replete with murals of ballplayers from the area, memorabilia and autographs galore.) Baseball gives him natural common ground for conversations with President Bush--a foray used last year to bring up global warming in an Oval Office visit.

As chairman of the House Science Committee, Boehlert, a moderate, has held the line against gratuitous attacks on climate science, particularly from Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Last year, Barton tried to subpoena several respected climate scientists, to run them through the police-lineup routine of a congressional hearing. Fireworks erupted between the two Republican leaders. Boehlert held the line against his anti-science colleague as he has done on many other issues during his term as chairman. He deftly greeted the president's new vision for NASA in 2003, insuring that good science, importantly earth science, not be squeezed out for manned missions of little practical value. (Things remain tight at NASA nonetheless, as any astrobiologist will tell you.)

A little-noticed irony in these election results comes from Sugarland, Texas, where former Rep. Nick Lampson (D) won the seat vacated by the disgraced and indicted former House Majority Leader Tom Delay. Lampson served on the Science committee before 2004, when Texas' allegedly illegal congressional redistricting eliminated his district from the political map. His new district includes NASA's Johnson Space Center, as did his old. Delay scooped up the JSC when he helped eliminate Lampson's seat. The Science committee chair will likely go to Bart Gordon of Tennessee, who has served as Ranking Member beside Boehlert.

Many questions await the Democrats as they take the power of the purse-strings. For one: The Clinton administration talked a great game on climate, renewable energy and next-generation transportation, but little came of it. Is there money for these important issues, and can they put it where their mouths are? How much money and will are there to address the nation's overall decaying scientific educational infrastructure? Stay tuned...