Brown's win gives GOP a 41-59 majority in the Senate

[Enrique]

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/01/scott_brown_win.php

The election of Republican Scott Brown to replace the deceased Ted Kennedy in the Senate from Massachusetts yesterday destroys the Democrats' 60-vote supermajority, widely presumed to be needed for passage of a health care bill, or so it would seem from headlines ("House Dems largely reject idea of passing Senate health care bill"), from Republicans who cheered "41!" at Brown's victory as if it were some kind of milestone, and from conservative Democrats like Evan Bayh, who portrays the election as a "wake-up call," indicating that Democrats should propose a weaker health care bill that will not piss off insurance lobbyists and other powerful Republican constituencies.

New York congressman and former mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner said before the election that "I think you can make a pretty good argument that health care might be dead" if Brown were to win; after Brown's victory, Weiner has come out with, "We shouldn't show the arrogance of not getting the message here," "I don't think it would be the worst thing to take a step back," and other gutless whinges.

Conservatives are delirious. "Waterboarding wins," exults National Review's Marc Thiessen, noting that Brown "spoke out forcefully in favor of enhanced interrogation." Michael Graham calls it a "once-in-a-generation, never-saw-it-coming, dance-in-the-streets victory for democracy." Brown is expected to be seated quickly, and Republicans to move as quickly to pass legislation with their 41-vote majority.

The lesson, as always, is that when Democrats win, they lose, and when they lose, they are obliterated.

[ProSense]

1. Perfect

:rofl:

[ddeclue]

2. Nope they already had a 55 vote majority NOW it's 56.

40 Republicans + 15 Blue Dogs = 55 Republicans.

[treestar]

3. good comedy

being not too far from the truth :rofl:

Democrats cry about a healthcare bill from a 59 D congress not being good enough. Republicans dance with joy at getting 41 so they can filibuster everything.

Republicans take what they can get. Democrats have that element that only sees the lack of perfection.

[madrchsod]

4. that seems to be the prevailing attitude here....

[Demoiselle]

5. Thank you for the laugh...

I wish it didn't hurt. I've come to expect total nasty lunacy from the Republicans, idiot spewing from the media, even, sadly, spineless nonsense from Democrats.
But this was, ultimately, an act of stupidity on the part of too many voters. Please don't tell me that Coakley ran a bad campaign. Maybe she did. But she ran a bad campaign against
a Playgirl centerfold who promised to kill health care reform and support "enhanced interrogation," and was all too clearly the tool of the moneyed and the powerful.
The words of Ben Franklin echo in my head. When asked by a passerby in Philadelphia during the Constitutional Convention what kind of government "have you given us?" he responded, "A Republic, madam, if you can keep it."

I honestly don't know anymore whether we can keep it or not. Not with this kind of stupidity. Yeah, I've used the word again. Makes me some kind of elitist, I guess.
Sorry. I'm just an old fashioned New Deal Democrat who is deeply disappointed at the moment. If that makes me an elitist, fine.