text: The Democratic party was run over in the midterm elections, giving up at least eight seats in the Senate. In some cases, they lost races they were supposed to win, and in others they lost by wide margins in contests that were supposed to be close.
  
  So what does this newly chastened and humbled party do to show a fresh face to voters? It chooses the same person to helm the party as minority leader, naturally.
  
  Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was re-elected to the top spot in his party's caucus on Thursday, but not without at least six votes against him and some pretty vocal opposition by his colleagues. Even some who supported Reid didn't exactly sound a note of confidence. As Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) told Politico: “There wasn’t anyone else running.”
  
  Reid, apparently aware things can't just stay the same after the midterm lashing, is making some changes. "We’re going to do things a little differently, a little different approach,” he told the Post as he left the Old Senate Chamber on Thursday night. In an attempt to expand and bolster his leadership team, he created an entirely new post for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the popular progressive voice, and appointed Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) to chair the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Tester's 2012 victory was seen as a blueprint for Democrats who hail from conservative states.
  
  Reports say Reid will also open up weekly leadership meetings and policy lunches, and that he intends to let more Democrats take the wheel on specific issues, as well as to free up the process for amendments.
  
  But will all this be enough? Warren's role, at least for now, seems ill-defined, and apparently came as a surprise to many Senate Democrats. And while more open meetings and lunches within the caucus should help, they won't correct the uneasy relationship between Reid and now Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that has left so many senators feeling like bit players in a dysfunctional system. The relationship between the two men has broken down so much, the Post's Paul Kane wrote in July, it has "almost immobilized the Senate."
  
  And so, here we are. A decisive midterm election is now over, and the same two men are still in charge, only with their roles reversed. It will be tempting for McConnell, who has reached the goal of becoming majority leader, to turn the tables on his longtime opponent. And Reid will need to adjust to his new role without a loser's spite. Given the battles between the two men, which have been described as akin to "divorce proceedings between a couple who loathe each other," that won't be easy.
  
  Perhaps Reid's experience at the helm — and how well he knows the way McConnell works — will pay off. And the midterm losses may have been as much about President Obama as they were about a dysfunctional Congress. But until Reid and McConnell can find a way to bridge their divide, the Democratic party is going to have a hard time putting a fresh face on what for now continues to look like a lot more of the same.
  
  More than 100 women in Congress for the first time, but not much growth
  
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  Jena McGregor writes a daily column analyzing leadership in the news for the Washington Post’s On Leadership section.
summary: Democrats are struggling to put a fresh face on what for now continues to look like more of the same.