“In 1994, Democrats had been in charge for 40 years,” she said. “We hadn’t had a taste of Republican leadership. So they could sort of be all things to all people.”…

Harold Ickes, deputy White House chief of staff that year, said Democrats won’t be caught off guard this time. He also said Republicans were more united in 1994 behind Newt Gingrich and the Contract with America than they are now, when there are tea party activists to deal with and no clear GOP standard-bearer…

Begala, who joked at the beginning of his presentation that, “here you’ve gathered three of the architects of the greatest Democratic debacle in modern history,” addressed the doomsday scenarios.

“It’s not a wave election. It’s a tsunami election. It’s really big out there,” he said of 2010. “Now, you can survive a tsunami. … And here’s how: you build an arc.”