Washington D.C. -- Stan Evans’ Monday Club, which meets bi-monthly at Hunan on the Hill restaurant near the Capitol, has been a conservative Washington institution for more than 20 years, and it is a tribute to Stan’s genius that he charges $8 for lunch when Hunan’s regular lunch special costs only $5.95. "It’s an entertainment charge," he explained to me, adding that the Centers for Disease Control has found that, after close study of the election results, "conservatism can’t be spread by casual contact."

This week’s Monday Club found the conservative faithful, gathered to hear an election post-mortem -- seldom has the term been more apt-- from the Prince of Darkness himself, Robert Novak, annoyed with the state of things, but undeterred from their long-term mission of limiting government to its proper scope. Would that the same could be said for Capitol Hill Republicans. Novak’s gloomy assessment: "The revolution is over." Bob Livingston, he thinks, will be a disappointment as Speaker of the House. And "business as usual" will pave the way for more Republican losses in future elections. No wonder he’s called the "Prince of Darkness."

William Rusher remarked many years ago that conservatives need a party just as wine needs a bottle. Right now conservatives think the Republican bottle has sprung a leak, while Establishment Republicans, egged on by media Rasputins, are telling conservatives that their wine has turned to vinegar.

By now you are sick of election analysis and the endless parsing of exit polls. But as Seinfeld might ask: What’s with the exit poll mania anyhow? Why do we need exit polls to tell us what elections mean? Don’t the vote counts tell us what elections mean? Why not skip balloting entirely and just send all voters an exit poll questionnaire? But we need to keep our eye on the ball here, lest we fall for the old misdirection play.

Think back to 1992, and the Republican convention in Houston. In the 48 hours immediately following the close of the convention, polls showed President Bush with a solid "bounce" in the polls, and generally favorable impressions of the convention among the public. But then the media went to work. That convention, the media chorus began to howl, was about "hate." It stuck.

This same playbook is being run today. "You mean congressional Republicans," the Conventional Wisdom is screaming, "you are too conservative, too extreme. You should be following the lead of the moderate, pragmatic state governors like John Engler and Tommy Thompson." What is ironic here is that liberals and the media howled with indignation when the "pragmatic" Engler abolished General Assistance handouts in Michigan a few years ago, and the "moderate" Thompson was similarly lambasted as a troglodyte for his early welfare reforms. The Media Research Center has assembled a splendid collection of the media outrage provoked by these "moderates."

The lesson here is clear: Let’s not be talked into surrendering the revolutionary fervor that has led to conservative victories. Let’s keep crushing good grapes, and seeking stout bottles for the wine.

--By Steven Hayward