Republicans did win, on their own terms, by gerrymandering more seats than Democrats. What no one could have known at the time is that they were not fighting a war that would determine control of the House but, rather, a marginal skirmish of scant relevance to the over-all outcome. To turn to a different metaphor du jour, the G.O.P. put up sandbags to stop a rising tide but got hit with a tsunami.