We lose one Senate seat and that's it? It's all over, everything?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Way to crumble.

[secondwind]

1. is it true we need all 60 votes in the Senate for HCR, but less if the voting is for budgetary

purposes? That's what I heard today from a Republican.

[karynnj]

12. That assumes that they will help with nothing

The Democrats need to work on regaining the PR battle. The fact is the Democrats tried very hard to create a bipartisan bill, but the strategy of the Republicans has been to not work in good faith on things. The media has fostered the idea that the Democrats over reached and tried to ram a bill through.

[leftynyc]

14. The public didn't see us fighting pubs

They saw us fighting ourselves. Now that the 60 votes are gone - take Lieberman's chairmanship away TODAY, let the other conservadems either work with us or with the pubs (they have to make a choice). Start with the smaller, more popular stuff (ending pre-existing condition exemptions, forbid ins cos from dropping coverage once someone is ill, allow cheaper drugs from Canada (or whereever). If the Dems continue to shill for the insurance/pharma cos during a recession, they'll continue to get their asses kicked. And stop protecting the freeking bankers - NOT ONE MORE DIME GOES TO THEM.

[treestar]

2. Well since the progressives are going home and cry and whine that

the Democrats did not "deliver" and obey them and get them 100% of what they wanted within one year -

we really are a minority party. The Republicans will always win in the end since their people are tough and don't whine and cry and stay home because they aren't getting their way 100%.

We simply don't have enough support and will have to fight Republicans again already.

The Repukes gave Bush 6 years to screw up this country. We only got ten months.

The Repukes are patient and long and hard working and getting their way back already. They don't have a "base" that deserts them within 1 year.

[AndyA]

5. And yet, the Democrats know all this. They've known it for years.

And still they pissed away the last year.

Allowing GOP delays due to trying to be bipartisan. Bipartisan means BOTH parties give a little. The GOP has given NOTHING. The Dems should have told them to go fuck themselves, and left the GOP behind. Instead, the coddled to them and this is the price we all pay.

We need tough Dems, not corrupt ones like Baucus, Landrieu, and others of their ilk.

After reaching across the aisle once, and having our fingers snapped at by the GOP, we should have warned them that we will give it one more try, and if they snap at us again, THAT'S IT. And then slam the fucking door in their face, and do what they were elected to do. But no...they still wanted to be fair and bipartisan.

Well, fair and bipartisan nearly brought the world to its knees in 2008, so that obviously isn't the way forward.

Do what you promised, Obama. Transparency. Health care with a public option. Oversight. Regulations. Equality for all. That's the way forward.

[uponit7771]

3. +111 SHE FUCKIN WENT ON VACATION!!!!!

[d_b]

4. dont you see?

we lost our filibuster-proof majority. now we'll never get anything done!

[JohnnyLib2]

6. Nope, that's hardly the spirit of T. Kennedy.

Gotta just keep pluggin'.

[hileeopnyn8d]

7. According to the media

it is, but no, it isn't all over.

The media and the GOP have been very good at pushing the narrative/propaganda, WE haven't been. They have played up every Democratic loss (no matter the circumstances or significance), every resignation, every decision not to run for re-election and called it a referendum against Democrats and/or Obama.

That simply isn't always the case, it just isn't. But we let them do this, we ALWAYS let them do this, we let them distort facts, confuse issues (and voters) to the point where people believe Saddam was involved in 9/11, a war hero is somehow portrayed as a treasonous coward, and Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. We let them. We let them impeach a President after a arduous witch hunt, the first Democratic president since FDR to be elected to a second term. Good grief, if it weren't for death in office and assassination, who knows whether they would have let us have even that much.


On second thought, maybe it is over.

[NoPasaran]

8. Apparently it WAS over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor

[Jennicut]

9. Jon Stewart thinks its ridiculous too. We have the majority. We never had a supermajority

anyway, with the conservative Dems in congress. But with a simple majority we need to get things done. The Rethugs would.

[karynnj]

10. This is asinine - At the beginning of this year, we had 59 Senators

with no real expectations that we could get 60. 60 really is an unusual, extremely high number for any party to have. The Republicans last had 60 in the 1920s.

I think Gibbs has to put this in perspective immediately. I dare anyone to find a 2008 quote where any Democrat speaks of needing 60 Senators or expresses confidence we will have 60 Senators.

[ElmoBlatz]

11. You're not getting it

It was arguably the safest Democratic seat in the whole country. Thats why its a political earthquake. This isn't about one seat. If this was a seat in New Mexico or Tennessee no one would care.

Elected politicians care about ONE thing above all else.... getting re-elected. If they see a threat to that, they will react accordingly. So its not about one Senate seat -- its about 99 other senators and 435 other representatives realizing that this too could happen to them.

[architect359]

13. +1 to you. Exactly what you said. n/t

[KingFlorez]

15. Our candidate was crappy, that is all it was about

And Massachusetts has elected Republicans before, it's not like it hasn't happened before. No open seat is ever really safe, the only way to hold them is with real work.

[hileeopnyn8d]

16. Nice to see

you borrowing the phrasing that right-wing bloggers are gleefully proclaiming this morning. I find the use of "political earthquake" distasteful at this given time, regardless of what side is doing it, but until now, I've only seen it from right-wingers.

[ElmoBlatz]

18. So you disagree with my analysis?

Earthquake....tsunami... pick your word. Do you believe this isn't more significant than your run of the mill Senate election?

Burying your head in the sand won't make the importance of it all go away

[uponit7771]

17. ******COAKLEY LITERALLY WENT ON VACATION DURING A SPECIAL ELECTION WITHOUT DAILY TRACKING!!*****