You know that tabs are cheap and those browsers ain't nice, and when I surf the web, I don't think I'll survive ...

Ed: Success has a thousand fathers; failure is an orphan. The inevitable midterm-disaster housecleaning has begun. I'm a bit surprised to see Wiles head out the door here, although she remains within the political operation. Wiles did a very good job at gatekeeping at the Oval Office and in dialing down drama in the West Wing. Miller's pugnacity might not make as good a fit in that regard, but it does show that Trump does not plan to 'moderate' in his final two years. 

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Fox News: The announcement came after Republicans lost control of both the House and Senate in the midterm elections, dealing a major blow to President Donald Trump after the war with Iran and persistent affordability concerns loomed large over elections, as voters weighed the economic toll of the conflict.

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A current White House official told Fox News Digital the decision was "very amicable" and Wiles handed her resignation in Thursday night. ...

Wiles has served in her role for 21 months, making her Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff across both of his terms. Trump cycled through four chiefs of staff during his first term, with John Kelly serving the longest—about 17 months.

She has been dubbed the "Ice Maiden" by Trump, which he noted in his 2024 victory speech, for hard-nosed approach to handling business.

Ed: Wiles has had health struggles this year and the pace of the midterm campaign may have exhausted her. Regardless, the scope of the midterm shellacking dictates some personnel changes in the White House, and chiefs of staff don't last much longer than this anyway. 

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... and putting America First. 

More than anything, I’m grateful for the extraordinary people I’ve had the privilege of working alongside. While my role may be changing, my commitment to the President and the mission never will.

Ed: I'm not sure what it means now to move to the political operation. Trump can't run for president again. He certainly will want to remain influential in the next GOP cycle, but this midterm result clearly calls for a change of direction, or at least better messaging and calculation than Trump's team managed in this cycle. This may be one way to allow Wiles a dignified exit, and don't be surprised if a few more transfer to the "political" team in the next few weeks. 

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Politico: Calley Means, former senior adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., torched now-former White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and several of President Donald Trump’s top advisers, laying the blame at their feet for stalled progress on populist platforms like the Make America Healthy Again movement.

In an episode of the popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast that aired Friday, Means said Wiles, deputy chief of staff Richard Walters, assistant to the president for policy Walker Barrett, top political strategist James Blair, and Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio killed the MAHA movement’s momentum and stalled the priorities that he believes Trump and Kennedy were ushered into Washington to deliver.

“These people just, and I don’t mean this like in a really dismissive way, these aren’t the best and brightest, these staffers. They have tremendous power, though,” Means told Rogan, who has often promoted the MAHA movement. “But they’re just like DC, you know, they play the game, and yeah, it’s crazy.”

Means suggested Trump fire them all.

Ed: Yeah, well, maybe. The GOP didn't lose the House, Senate, and Texas over MAHA issues. This sounds more like tunnel vision than true analysis, but it also doesn't surprise me to see a Protection Racket Media outlet promote these criticisms, either. Get ready for the March Of The Disgruntled over the next couple of weeks. 

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Ed: I wonder about that too. It may be that Miller tackles the job in the way Wiles did, as a low-profile hatchet man focused on West Wing gatekeeping and behind-the-scenes strategizing. That's not been Miller's MO, however, and the pugnacious style may hamper any efforts to work with Democrats in the coming months ... assuming they want to do so at all. 

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CBS News: The Senate midterm race in deep-red Mississippi remains unresolved, with Democrat Scott Colom mounting a surprisingly competitive challenge to incumbent GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. 

With about 96% of the vote in, at one point Wednesday morning just a few dozen votes separated the candidates, a stunningly close result in the Magnolia State. By midday Friday, Colom was leading Hyde-Smith by just over 2,000 votes. 

State officials say several thousand ballots still need to be counted, and both campaigns have expressed confidence.

Ed: This may take as long as Alaska to settle. Whoever loses will likely demand a recount, and that could get very ugly. The stakes are too high for either to just shrug off a three-digit loss, or even one in the low four digits, which is where the gap is at the moment. 

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Ed: Same. It's certainly not meant to signal a Kumbaya moment on the horizon. On the other hand, we're not seeing a lot of Kumbayas coming from the other side either ... 

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Daily Mail: Liberal podcaster Jennifer Welch joked about 'digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again' as she gloated over huge Democratic wins in the midterm elections. 

Welch mocked the conservative commentator's assassination on the Thursday episode of her podcast, I've Had It, as she and co-host Angie Sullivan said the midterms wipeout represented a cultural shift for the nation. ...

In her final joke from the list, Welch and Sullivan could hardly contain their laughter as the host read: 'We’re digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again.' 

The hosts wept with laughter at the joke about Kirk's assassination, as they giggled for over 20 seconds before Welch said, 'No comment, no comment on that one.'

Ed: If Democrats think this was a cultural revolution, they are on the path for disaster in 2028. When they start pushing Woke 2.0, DEI, and pediatric sex changes again, voters will flip pretty quickly. 

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Ed: We've known for some time that households with children strongly tend to vote Republican/conservative. These numbers are still very striking even with that context already in mind. What does that mean? I suspect it has something to do with hope prevailing over nihilism. People with children want to ensure continuity for their progeny. 

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Joel Abbott at Not the Bee: Did you catch that 45% of men and 39% of women between 30 (born in 1996) and 44 (born in 1982) have no kids? Start doing the civilizational math, ladies and gents. Think a century out. Think five centuries out.

(In other words, the fundamentalists at Focus on the Family were right about everything.)

The GOP made a lot of blunders. The majority of people with kids still cast anti-Republican votes. Women are still becoming more liberal.

We also live in stupid times with people who vote for the leaders of the world's strongest empire based on vibes.

But you could fix most of our societal problems AND shift politics +35 points to the Right by simply doing what all living creatures do.

Have kids.

Ed: Joel makes a great point about the generational math. However, before you have kids, you have to have hope. And that's one thing that the American public-education industry beats out of its captive students. That's why our fertility rates are sinking below replacement levels, and why we need to break the government monopoly on education. 

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Ed: One side voted like Trump was on the ballot; it just didn't turn out to be Republicans. Some GOP voters probably crossed over, but the real story was that Dems won the turnout war. When Republicans have someone else at the top of a presidential ticket – and if Dems are still acting like the won a cultural revolution this week – they may have a rude shock coming. 

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NY Post: Fresh off her surprise win in Tuesday’s midterm election, North Carolina Democrat LaKesha Womack is set to appear in court next week on a felony car theft charge. 

Womack, one of more than 40 Democrats who flipped Republican-held House seats in the blue wave election, defeated GOP Rep. Tim Moore in North Carolina’s 14th Congressional District — just weeks after being served the felony summons at a campaign event. 

The newly-elected congresswoman’s court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 10. ... Womack is accused of failing to return a rental car — valued at about $20,000 — in 2019.

Ed: As I quipped on X/Twitter, this makes Womack over-qualified for Congress. She claims that the theft case is just about a late return of a car rental while she was seriously ill and that the matter has already been resolved, but it seems very unlikely that prosecutors would have issued a warrant if the car had been returned. She could face three years in prison, but perhaps the judge will go easy on her if convicted, and sentence Womack to serve two years in the House as a Republican while Democrats hold the majority. (I kid, I kid ... sorta.)

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Ed: Kudos to Fetterman for speaking out. So far, it appears that he's the only Senate Democrat to do so. 

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Josh Blackman and Seth Barrett Tillman at The Volokh Conspiracy: On November 3, 2026, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota-Democratic Party) was elected Governor of Minnesota. It is expected that, at some point, she will resign her U.S. senate seat, then take up the governor's position, and subsequently make a temporary appointment to fill her then-vacant senate seat. That dance of musical chairs happens from time-to-time. But some have also reported that Klobuchar must resign her senate seat. CBS News quoted political science professor David Schultz (Hamline University, Minnesota): "At some point she's going to have to step down as U.S. [S]enator." That might be true pragmatically—as a matter of politics. And sometimes, federal and state constitutional and statutory law bar dual-officeholding. Sometimes, but not all the time. In these circumstances, the law does not expressly bar dual-officeholding where, as here, the two positions are U.S. Senator and Minnesota Governor.

The U.S. Constitution's Incompatibility Clause (Article I, Section 6, Clause 2) bars U.S. Senators and Representatives from concurrently holding certain other federal positions. The position of governor is a state, not a federal position. So, this provision has no application here.

The Minnesota State Constitution has a similar provision (Article IV, Section 5). That provision bars Minnesota's state (not U.S.) Senators and Representatives from holding other state and federal positions. Klobuchar is not a state Senator; rather, she is a U.S. Senator. So, this provision has no application here.

Ed: This almost sounds like Vizzini in The Princess Bride, no? It's a fun essay and well worth a read, but almost certainly academic. As Rod Blagojevich once observed, an open Senate seat is a "f*****g valuable thing" for governors. Klobuchar has the opportunity to either repay a favor or gain an IOU from a Minnesota Democrat. It's a practical impossibility for Klobuchar to do both jobs, just the same as it would be for Marsha Blackburn in Tennessee, who is in the same situation. It is, however, fun to contemplate the potential consequences. 

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Last night's lyric: "Midnight Train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight and the Pips.