After a string of qualified “successes” in the game of legislative chicken, congressional Republicans may have finally met their Dead Man’s Curve. With time running out on the payroll tax cut extension that will affect 160 million Americans, Republicans in the House rejected a bipartisan Senate compromise to extend the payroll tax cut for two months in transparently cynical fashion. Now, the conservative Wall Street Journal is calling their strategy a “fiasco,” and questioning the GOP’s chances at taking back the Senate in 2012.

Joe Scarborough makes the point early on Morning Joe: “We’re all talking about the House right now – it is the Senate that has become more conservative, by so many degrees.”

The Democrats lost the House by a huge flip — Nate Silver called it at 243 seats, with a net gain of 65 for the GOP, in the biggest flip from one side to the other since 1948. But as Scarborough points out, even though the headline is that the Dems get to hold the Senate, the overall tone of the Senate has shifted right.

In his op-ed for the New York Times today, conservative columnist Ross Douthat criticized the “Pledge to America,” saying that “House Republicans have adopted the atmospherics of the Tea Party Movement, but they’ve evaded its most admirable substance.”

Republicans in the House deserve a lot of credit for trying something new. In a further bid to be seen as the party of the people, they announced yesterday that they had created a website called America’s Speaking Out where users can give their opinions on issues that they think Republicans should tackle in their quest to regain control this November. Unfortunately, while the idea is clever and well-intentioned, it’s also a little bit naive. As anyone who has ever been in a message board ever will tell you, the internet is full of crazy people.

There is no question why all three cable news channels carried the recent discussion between Obama and House Republicans – it was remarkably entertaining television. One cable news channel chose to break early from the coverage however, and, judged by ratings, it just so happens to be the most influential. Fox News interrupted the live feed to claim that the President was “combative”, and that Obama “acknowledged a couple of mistakes.” Maybe bipartisanship isn’t good for cable news?