House Democrats watched the election results come in from Massachusetts with a sense of impending doom for their agenda — and panic for their vulnerable freshmen.

“I feel sorry for them,” Rep. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.) said of his most junior colleagues. “It’s like they walked in and got hit upside the head with a big jackhammer.”

Moderate Democrats have grown increasingly anxious over the past few months, watching nervously as Democratic incumbents in swing districts announced retirements, as one of their own switched parties, as Republicans scored some recruiting coups and as Democrats lost key gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey.

But nothing set the alarms bells ringing quite like Scott Brown's come-from-behind victory over Martha Coakley in Massachusetts — and with it the loss of not just Ted Kennedy's Senate seat but also their party's 60-vote supermajority in the upper chamber.

Kennedy's son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) said Democrats have to understand that they've entered a different era — and that they can't just assume that voters will be with them.

“It’s like in Roman times, they’d be trotted out to the coliseum and the lions would be brought out,” Kennedy said Tuesday night. “I mean, they’re wanting blood and they’re not getting it so they want to protest. And, you know, you can’t blame them. But frankly, the fact is we inherited this mess, and it’s becoming ours.”

Ohio Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan said he hoped Tuesday night's election would be a "wake-up call" for his party.

“People weren’t aware of the type of anxiety that was out there in 1994, but I think everyone is aware of it now," he said.

Top Democrats say they would not be surprised if, in the wake of Tuesday's special election, a few more of their members decide to retire rather than face tough reelection fights in the coming months.

“It’s possible there could be a few more Democratic and a few Republican retirements,” said Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, noting that he doesn’t anticipate “any surge like we saw in 1994.”

Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) was keeping his options open Tuesday night, saying that he would not commit to running for reelection just yet.

"When I do make an announcement — and I never make them this early — no one is going to be surprised at what I have to say," he said. "It will be later.”

Other candidates stressed how the campaigns they're running are different than Coakley's failed bid.

Rep. Paul Hodes, who is running for Senate in New Hampshire, noted that he’s been campaigning aggressively on the ground and reaching out to independent voters — things Coakley stands accused of not doing — and he pointed to his recent pledge to stop requesting earmarks as evidence that he's committed to fiscal responsibility and changing the ways of Washington.