WASHINGTON WATCH: NATION'S POLITICAL STRATEGISTS ANALYZE THE TIDAL WAVE OF TUESDAY'S VOTING

At a roundtable discussion the morning after The 1994 Revolution, some of the best in the political business, bleary-eyed and somewhat dazed, offered their interpretations of why the American people elected Republicans to majorities in the U.S. House and Senate for the first time in 40 years. The discussion took place at the Washington Mayflower Hotel. As all of the participants were political strategists or analysts, the commentary dealt disproportionately with tactics. Here are excerpts from what a few of the panelists said. Charlie Cook, editor of The Cook Political Report, is widely recognized as one of the nation's leading authorities on American elections. He was formerly active in Democratic politics:This is a once- or twice-a-century tidal wave, and we are likely to be six feet under before it happens again. Really, the depth and breadth of what we saw was breathtaking. It was huge, huge, huge, and unless you've been involved in politics for many years, it's hard to fully appreciate it. This was not a race-by-race election. What we saw in this election was a lot of anti-establishment, a lot of anti-Democrat and a lot of anti-Clinton.

Neil Newhouse is a Republican pollster who worked on several leading Senate races this year:We knew the political issues were going our way. But our numbers on Election Day were up in every race from what our polls had been saying. The sentiment had incredible depth. It carried all the way down into many county races. The turning point was the crime bill. It energized our Republican base, and it exposed an arrogance in Washington that went back to before Clinton was sworn in.

Geoff Garin is a Democratic pollster who worked on the Senate campaigns of Chuck Robb, Diane Feinstein and Jim Sasser. He also worked on the Lawton Chiles gubernatorial campaign in Florida against Jeb Bush:Democrats had no sense of core message. This started to happen as early as the fall of 1993. There was no sense of what Clinton economics was about, no sense of how Democrats were helping people feel whole economically. This led to our biggest problem: The American people were given no convincing reason to be for Democrats rather than Republicans. Frankly, we also conceded too much of the center on too many issues. But you know what the biggest predictor of how people voted was: voter opinion of Bill Clinton. The American people don't like Bill Clinton.Ed Rollins is a Republican campaign strategist who managed Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign in 1984 and Ross Perot's campaign, for a while, in 1992. One of his candidates defeated Speaker Tom Foley:The best news for the president Tuesday was that he wasn't on the ballot. But Bill Clinton is certainly not finished. We lost 26 seats in 1982. We won 49 states two years later. The bottom line, though, is that Bill Clinton and the Democrats have got to figure out what they're all about and what they're going to do. Equally important is for the congressional Republicans, Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich, to become statesmen and leaders. There has to be an agenda. There has to be in the next two years cooperation with the White House so that the American public looks back in 1996 and says it was worth the effort putting all these Republicans in.If the president gets dragged to the left, where the majority of his party is today in the Congress, he will be in trouble. If the new Republicans drag themselves too far to the right, they will be in trouble.

Al From is president of the Democratic Leadership Council. He was director of domestic policy for then-president-elect Clinton:I think this was a political earthquake. I think that the early tremors began 30 years ago. For the last 30 years the Republicans have dominated presidential elections. And what we saw was the Big One last night, which I believe put an end to the New Deal era of politics. It was a grand and glorious era for Democrats, but it's over. And we better understand that. It's also an end to Liberalism as we knew it. The old liberalism, which built the middle class and was the most successful political ideology of this century can no longer sustain the support of those who were catapulted into the middle class. Democrats better understand that, too.Jon K. Rust is a Washington-based writer for the Southeast Missourian.