But is congress (RINOs/CINOs/Leftists alike) convinced there was a revolt.
I doubt it. If there's one thing career politicians understand it's poll numbers, and a serious analysis of the numbers (both from Nov 2006 and historical election numbers) shows this to be a fairly normal mid-term beating. Also let's not lose the possibility of a throw, you have to lose periodically otherwise the population starts getting worried. And with the situation in Iraq 2006 was a good time to lose, with the Dems whining on and on about the administrations "mistakes" this is a good time to let them get some more power and put the onus on them to figure it out. Because Iraq is still probably going to be a situation in 2008 (normal insurgencies tend to last 7 years, so a wrap up before 2010 is highly unlikely) giving the Dems a chance to "fail" (actually they might really fail, but even if their ideas are good real success won't be visible by 2008) for two years greatly improves the GOPs chance of keeping the White House.