Basically the center of the country told the Republicans to shape up or ship out. Once they embraced their vision of big governement and did stupid shit like the online gambling act and mistreatment of PoWs, they lost the support of the socially liberal, fiscally conservitve, small government crowd. The Libertarian vote even swung a few seats and the spite/stay-home-because-you-disgust-me votes had to swing a hell of a lot more.