Now that we're over the Nedster's mid-life crisis, Christopher Shays' televised meltdown and Joe Lieberman's imperious reaffirmation, we the voters are left to pick up the pieces of this nasty Campaign 2006.

Any day now, I expect to see U.S. Rep. Nancy Johnson — whose attack ads, like her 5th-District defeat, were the worst in the state — grazing on the side of the parkway with the other woodchucks.

And while Gov. Jodi Rell may have run up surprisingly huge numbers against New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, she essentially did zero campaigning for state House and Senate candidates and now faces veto-proof Democratic majorities.

How Rell turned a 63-to-35 percent landslide into a multi-seat GOP loss in the House is testament to the governor's non-existent coattails and what State Republican Chairman and soon-to-be House minority chief of staff George Gallo calls the Democrats' "toxic headwind."

If Democrat Joe Courtney holds his narrow margin over U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons in the recounts, it means that Shays, R-4, would be the only Republican congressional survivor. Wearing his heart on his sleeve and having a district tailored like a Savile Row suit, helped Shays survive.

But at one point last Tuesday night, I got the feeling, watching Shays that someone gave him a set of election returns with a dropped decimal for his total.

His televised angst was moving, but bordered on narcissism when he tried to collect the blame for dead U.S. troops in Iraq.

Hello,

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Congressman Shays! It's a representative democracy. All of us, led by the Bush administration and an economy where college is out of reach for a percentage of the populace, send our troops into harm's way, not you.

Relax and smell your reduced role in a Democrat-controlled Congress, because, unlike Ned Lamont — the spell check says 'lament' — you're there. Lamont, who got to the point Monday where he opened the door to WAY too much speculation on what inspired him to accept bitter former Gov. Lowell "Big Guy" Weicker's challenge to go after Lieberman, is probably bouncing around the kitchen at Chez Lamont in Greenwich right now.

On the 'fridge is a Post It note with a to-do list that includes "Call Round Hill Club" and "Check Bank Statement" to see what that $16 million he spent on the campaign means to his bottom line.

Somewhere, there has to be a Beatles CD blasting "The Ballad of John and Yoko" dating back from the early 1970s, when another anti-war candidate, U.S. Sen. George McGovern, raised the hopes of millions only to be crushed by Dick Nixon in the 1972 presidential election.

Ned's mid-life diversion showed us a number of things, including the fact that his wife Annie, a venture capitalist, was a better candidate. But she makes serious money, not this on-again, off-again cable-installation company that Ned "started from scratch" with family wealth dating back more than 100 years.

Ned learned how to hemorrhage his family fortune, while Lieberman was smart enough to let his corporate backers foot the bill.

Vowing to continue reaching across the aisle "to get things done," Lieberman could become a noncombatant in the potential partisan war than may break out in January if Bush decides to manipulate a lame duck session to push the vestiges of his now-repudiated agenda before the end of the year. Ned could have really enjoyed being in a Democratic majority, but maybe his next hobby will be sailing, or maybe running for the General Assembly in Greenwich's Republican bastion. So there was Ned on Monday, doing his last-gasp bus tour of Connecticut, stopping at a healthcare union in Hartford for a little lunchtime rave.

The national press and TV was missing because of the much-bigger and even-nastier nationwide Senate races than one between two Democrats in Connecticut. The smug bloggers were there, though, because they had another 34 hours of 70s-era denial. But at the union HQ, after the usual preliminaries and anti-Lieberman mantra for the reporters and photographers, Lamont, flanked by his family, introduced his wife and three children. It was one of those moments when reporters are glad to have tape recorders. "I want to thank my family for being here. Talk about who was here first," he said, on the verge of sharing too much information. "Annie and I were there... just lying there (little laugh) about a year ago, just saying this country is going in the wrong direction and what can we do about it."

At this point I wonder if Annie thinks a red convertible would have been a better and cheaper idea.

Ken Dixon's Capitol View appears Sundays in the Connecticut Post. You may reach him in the Capitol at (860) 549-4670 or e-mail him at dixon.connpost@snet.net.