GOP Victories Have Hosts of Radio Talk Shows Abuzz : Media: The conservatives offer rhetorical high-fives even as those on left-leaning programs struggle to explain Democrats’ losses.

To the strains of James Brown’s “I Feel Good,” Rush Limbaugh switched on his “gloat-o-meter” Wednesday and proceeded, well, to gloat.

Gleefully recounting the Republican takeover of both houses of Congress, the conservative radio personality hailed “one of the most massive shifts to the right in any country in any year since the history of civilization.

“This was a personal, political and ideological refutation and repudiation of the most amazing attempt to move this country to the left we’ve seen in 50 years,” Limbaugh said.

Former Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy was equally ecstatic on his syndicated show. “This marks the beginning of the end of the dreadful, disastrous, venal, corrupt, sleazy Clinton presidency,” he declared. “The American people have rescued themselves.” Noting that stock prices had soared all morning, Liddy said: “Even Wall Street is hailing the defeat of the Clinton socialists.”

What some have dubbed the talk-radio election--a campaign in which anger and alienation have echoed across the airwaves--came full circle Wednesday as conservative hosts did rhetorical high-fives and liberals struggled to explain the hurricane that blew away the likes of Mario M. Cuomo, Thomas S. Foley and Dan Rostenkowski.

“What was proven by the election is that the sentiment expressed on talk radio, which so many of its critics discounted as being overblown, is in fact the voice of America,” said Michael Harrison, editor of Talkers magazine and a radio jock in Massachusetts. “They say, ‘Oh, it’s just a bunch of right-wing wackos.’ ”

Some hosts did more than just gab about the campaign. Trash-talking jockey Howard Stern, who won the Libertarian Party nomination for New York governor but later endorsed Republican George Pataki, Wednesday claimed credit for Cuomo’s defeat. Pataki, calling in, seemed to agree, saying many Long Island voters had mentioned Stern’s backing.

“You did get the word out, and it was just great, and I thank you!” Pataki said.

“People are like sheep sometimes--they’ve got to be told what to do,” Stern announced.

Stern boasted he could have made the difference for New Jersey Republican Garabed (Chuck) Haytaian, who lost to Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg. Haytaian had called several times asking for an endorsement, but Stern said he couldn’t abide Haytaian’s opposition to abortion.

Haytaian confirmed he sought Stern’s on-air blessing, in part because rival morning man Don Imus was backing Lautenberg. “They’re important players because people are in their cars in our state,” Haytaian said. “I’m a superstitious guy. Stern endorsed Christie Whitman (for New Jersey governor), and she won.”

On programs that lean to the left, the mood ranged from somber to funereal. Bob Levey, a Washington Post columnist and WMAL host, was less than complimentary toward the GOP’s new House speaker: “What do you think Newt Gingrich proposes to do? Snake oil, pure snake oil.”

On Diane Rehm’s WAMU program, a caller named Isaac argued that “the Democrats deserve everything they’ve gotten. This is a party that laid back and refused to defend their President.” Rehm replied that “the White House simply was not able to get their message out.”

National Public Radio sounded a bit like a group-therapy session. Jackie from Massachusetts told host Ray Suarez that voters are “forgetting that the Democrats have traditionally helped the middle class and the poor. . . . Ted Kennedy, thank God, did get in.”

Marguerite from Pennsylvania described herself as “another depressed Democrat. I was especially depressed at the simple nature of the governor’s race here, which seemed to be who was going to kill more people with the death penalty. Oliver North losing is about the only positive thing that happened.”