Both Parties Could Gain from Mass.

As the dust settles on the upset Republican Senate victory in Massachusetts, both parties are looking for a way to corral the populist outrage that seems to have catapulted Republican candidate Scott Brown onto the national stage. The GOP, for its part, sees the race as a model for its 2010 strategy: Harness populist rhetoric, an energized conservative base, and a Democratic establishment seen by some voters as out of touch. But the Democrats are reading the Massachusetts tea leaves as well, and even as the moderate and liberal wings of the party disagree on what they might mean, they did note that their next big legislative push—financial regulatory reform—was a natural fit for their party’s platform.