I actually still have a Jon Freedland story from the Guardian back in '94, just after the GOP took back the US House, that talks about that exact process, Tim. :)

TheLand, I'm sure that you feel it's ludicrous to proclaim hegemony when 49% of voters are selecting Kerry. However, hegemony speaks to power, not popularity; as Tim has pointed out, the Republicans control every branch of the Federal Government, and by the end of Bush's term - Arlen Spector notwithstanding, filibusters notwithstanding - they will probably have established a conservative majority on the Supreme Court. In any instance, the Federal Judiciary of lower courts will be packed with much more conservative justices than would have been appointed by Gore or Kerry, or ratified by a Democrat-controlled Senate. The results of these elections will remake American politics on a grand scale for a generation, 49% be damned.

In the less-publicised results, Republicans control 29 Governor's mansions, and in 20 states, control both houses of the State legislature. In only 17 states do they control neither house of the state legislature, but in 10 of those states, they have a veto-wielding governor as a counterbalance. Of those 17 States, the Republicans trail the democrats by a single digit number of seats in almost a dozen - and they will get those margins in 2006 unless there is a miraculous reversal in political fortunes.

Republicans might never get their constitutional amendments passed by a majority of the states, but they wield enough power to prevent anyone else from doing serious business at a Federal level.