Up for grabs was the seat of recently retired former Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois, who never would have been in any election trouble had he run for another term.

Hastert though decided it was time to move on (I saw him on the stump several times on behalf of GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney) and so his seat was up for a special election over the weekend.

Instead of an easy win for the GOP, the seat went to Democrat Bill Foster, described as a wealthy physicist and businessman, padding the majority of Democrats in the US House.

National Republican as expected played down the importance of the win for Foster, who got 53% of the vote.

"One election in one state does not prove a trend," said National Republican Congressional Campaign spokeswoman Karen Hanretty.

While that is certainly true, the playing field right now in the Congerss is so skewed in favor of Democrats that it is hard to see how they don't expand their numbers in both the House and Senate.

House Republicans have over two dozen open seats to deal with ("open" is defined as no incumbent in the race) while Democrats have only a handful.

It's worse in the Senate where there are five GOP open seats to zero for the Dems.

While you never say "never" in anything dealing with elections, the chances of the GOP picking up seats is very slim; the chances of the GOP taking back either the House or the Senate is darn near impossible, and this weekend's loss in Illinois only showcases those problems.