Stoller's correct that Democrats controlled Congress until '94, so it's not quite correct to say that Washington was a top to bottom Republican town for all those years. Still, thousands of important jobs are presidential political appointees, and as Stoller correctly points out a lot of "Democrats" back then were Dixiecrats and defense/farm pork Democrats. Basically, the ruling class of Washington for decades has been a right of center coalition of Republicans, "serious" Democrats who are wrong about most things, and the media elite who preside over the party.
