I believe we may have just experienced a great tatical political move. If the democrats won the Mass election they would have had a very hard time of backing off on some of the crazy bills bring run through by Pelosi and Reid. In particular they would have a difficult time in being a part of killing the Health Bill, Cap & Trade, etc.
With a Republican win a number of their problems have gone away. They can fall back that they don't have the 60 majority needed to follow through, blame the republicans for the bill being killed and take a deep breath of thanks for being saved for the time being.. It will probably lead to Pelosi and Reid demise for getting them into this fix. They will have lost a lot of the socialistic push they have been pushing. If I am right it was a stroke of political genius. They will try to "bury" the bribes they fostered by changing the subject