“Forget ‘liberal’: Given a few more weeks like the ones congressional Democrats just endured, and the dreaded L-word they’ll be struggling to shake is ‘losers.’ Children’s health care, government spying, the atrocities of the Ottoman Empire, the toxic ramblings of Representative Pete Stark — you name the issue, Dems managed to get their clocks cleaned in the p.r. battle with a fractured Republican minority led by a lame-duck president only marginally more popular with the American public than Chinese toy manufacturers…. [W]hat in God’s name is wrong with congressional Dems? It’s one thing to lose all your battles when you’re the beleaguered minority crushed beneath the boot heel of a well-liked commander-in-chief and a power-mad congressional majority. But, when you can’t manage to win even one lousy spin cycle under the current politically felicitous circumstances, voters are going to start wondering if you simply don’t have what it takes to govern — if perhaps you really do deserve that 25 percent approval rating” — from an editorial in the latest New Republic magazine.