The media can't conceal their rooting interest in this campaign, which leads them to pursue any narrative that's damaging to the GOP, even when it contradicts other narratives damaging to the GOP. When Republicans appeal to rural, white, socially conservative voters, they are Neanderthals. When Democrats do it, they are shrewd tacticians.
When Republicans work together with the Christian right, they are true-believing, would-be theocrats. When a book comes out alleging that some Bush aides said dismissive things about leaders of the Christian right, Republicans are manipulative hypocrites.
When the Foley scandal breaks, Republicans are protective of predatory gays. When Republicans oppose gay marriage, they are anti-gay bigots.
The press hates negative campaigning, except when it comes to its own. Virginia Republican Sen. George Allen infamously insulted a worker from a rival campaign by calling him "macaca." A stupid mistake. But The Washington Post has run so many front-page "news" articles on the incident, together with editorials, columns, editorial cartoons and style-section lifestyle pieces, that the paper's ombudsman concluded, gently, that "it looked like piling on." Even after that, the paper's biographical profile of Allen -- in every other instance, a fluffy piece on a candidate -- made his life seem a steady stream of nothing but racial incidents.
If there is any bright side for Republicans to the media partisanship and pre-celebration, it's that they already are getting a flavor for what a Pelosi speakership will be like. If she wins a majority, conservatives will soon have buyer's remorse, or more precisely, indifference remorse, realizing that their disaffection from the GOP only empowered liberal Democrats. The ongoing honeymoon should give them more incentive to try to call off the wedding.