A little-known Republican upended the balance of power in Washington by winning a U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts, a result that imperils President Barack Obama’s top legislative priorities and augurs trouble for his party in this year’s elections.
With 75% of the vote counted, Republican Scott Brown was leading his opponent, Massachusetts’ Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley 52.7% to 46.3%, according to the Associated Press, which declared Mr. Brown the winner.
The Brown victory forces the White House and Congressional leaders into a mad scramble to decide how—or whether—to salvage their long-sought health-care overhaul. Rushing the bill after losing Massachusetts carries political risks. So does allowing it to collapse.
Filibuster schmilibuster.
I remember listening to an enlightening segment on NPR about how the filibuster is an essential part of our “functioning democracy” when the Dems were threatening to use it against Bush.
I was all, “wtf?” because I only remember people going on and on about how Strom Thurmond used the evil filibuster against the blacks.
I think that was on NPR too.
Oh well.
#31 bobbo:
“both parties lie, all politicians lie. The repugs are a party”
Do you have a cutesy denigrating nickname for the Democrats? Because I don’t remember you ever using it.
#29–do-ill==only angry idiots are for the two party system, so you are right in line.
Again the axiomatic proof==the dems and pubs are but the two sides of the same corrupt coin structured to make third party change almost impossible. Looks like the Teabaggers are having a good run at this third party change paradigm. Too bad they are angry idiots.
#33–brm==why thank you. I hope that didn’t hurt too much???
You are right. If I have, not often, do I demonize the dip shit demoncraps. But every time I see a cutesy appellation, I do get a chuckle.
Shows my bias. Indeed, they are just the least bad of our two terrible parties.
#32–brm==you can argue about fillibusters as being appropriate for the rare occassions when a minority feel very passionately about an issue. Even then it is anti-demoncratic.
But the argument and your post fall all apart when it is used uniformly. Or all together too often?
Contra: I see no reason not to require “super majorities” to change previous action agreed to. There is a lot of logic to that position as well. Harder to react but a pendulum that swings less wildly.
Super majorities do shift power to super idiots though.
Pro’s and Con’s to all we can do. I’d like to have a coalition government. The party of existential pragmatic informed atheists will never be a majority movement, but maybe we could eek out a single seat?
#34 “axiomatic proof”
Yah I’m THE idiot. Hey high school drop out…while we’re talking about your genius, you might want to rethink your use of redundancies.
Your logic is full of such blinding insight that no doubt the media will come calling and begging to have you as a consultant.
Now go back to your correspondence course little man.
#36
“Pro’s and Con’s to all we can do. I’d like to have a coalition government. The party of existential pragmatic informed atheists will never be a majority movement, but maybe we could eek out a single seat?”
The only seat you’ll be sitting at is at the children’s table during Thanksgiving Dinner. Try as you might, losers like you will never have a leadership position.
#35 “Shows my bias. Indeed, they are just the least bad of our two terrible parties.”
Where did you learn English moron?
When comparing more than two groups “least” would be appropriate. When comparing two groups, use “less” or “lesser”. Get a clue Boobo!
Wonder if Keith “teabagging homophobic racist” Olbermann has yet come to the realization that he contributed to Brown’s win?
To answer your question, now health care reform is more likely to pass, as Obama and the Democrats are forced to cut a deal with Republicans. Now they will get votes from Senators like Snowe or Voinovich or Collins or Brown. That’s how Ted Kennedy got things done when the Republicans were in the majority.
The filibuster was not intended to be a parliamentary device to kill bills, it was designed to give senators time to return to congress so that they could vote on the issue at hand.
Also you used to have to debate to filibuster. Now days all you have to do is say that you wont vote for cloture and the bill will not proceed.
Having said that, if the democrats want to have a huge insurance company, drug company and hospital corporate welfare program, then all they have to do is vote on the already passed senate bill in the house.
Me? Im ok with it dying. This bill makes the problem worse. The good news is, now that we have tried this approach and it failed, they have no choice left but to give us single payer.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=c4aQCiRjvZY&feature=player_embedded
#42 Well said Postman… I agree that it’s a corporate welfare bill and it should die. Good luck getting single payer though… 🙁
#44,
It wont pass this year, and had this bill passed it wouldn’t have happened in my lifetime. Now when they revisit it again 10-20 years from now, single payer will have nearly a century of working out in other western nations.
Also finally, we can lay to rest the notion that the way democrats get elected is to run as republican-lite. Here is a case of a guy (Obama) who ran as a dyed-in-the-wool liberal and won a handy majority, but then immediately triangulated to the right and will be a single term president.
Also future (smart) politicans will forever abandon the notion that they need to appease the right wing as Obama has repeatedly done. Because no matter what you give them (I still don’t see why they don’t like Obama he has more or less continued everything Bush did…) They will not support you unless you speak their code.
But that is not what happened in this election. It was close until Obama got involved, and that killed any chance for Coakly.
I am optimistic about the mood in the country, and I could give a damn about the letter behind the name of the person when they speak on TV. We desperatly need people who are not beholden to corporate interests. Large companies are literally destroying the fabric of our country.
I mean after the the automobile bailout GM responds by accelerating the rate at which they export jobs from the US? Really???
The sooner we have a government that will withdraw from WTO and NAFTA, the better we are, because those treaties do not serve the american people.
I hear Obama called Sen Elect Brown, and said
‘Heckuva job, Brownie’
#39–angry==I notice and choose to use most of my solipsisms. But you have me there, got lazy.
So, out of all those ad hominems, you got me on a simple point of grammar?
Ha, ha. I’d much rather be found wanting for my grammar than my thinking. You are a model for both rules.
As to the current Obama (Senate) Bill==yea, its not what anyone wants BUT==it breaks the log jam and could be the only way to get health care reform that could actually work 5-10 years down the road?? The alternative appears to be the status quo and a further delay for the same process to be undertaken in 15-20 years when our Nation is even farther into bankruptcy.
As already demonstrated, politics is about choosing between the bad, not between good and bad, at least until the next revolution.
>the lesson has to be that no winning party should ever attempt to deliver on its promises, and under no circumstances should it follow through and actually deliver promised legislation.
http://amconmag.com/larison/2010/01/19/change-for-changes-sake/
#47
I disagree. This health care bill is a horrible albatross. It asks you to sacrifice then it lets drug companies, hospitals and insurance companies continue to use price fixing structures to make record profits in the worst economy in living memory.
It will radically increase the number of people who are on catastrophic coverage, which it will more than triple the cost of, and it will remove “health care” from the economic reality of normal every day people.
Insurance companies are given a huge pass on price fixing, but now they get price fixing with government subsidies. Drug companies are guaranteed price fixing, even though they continue to do business in countries that negotiate prices. Hospitals will continue their outlandish billing practices. There will still be a giant health care billing industry eating up 40% of the revenues from health care.
This election tonight, is going to kill this bill, and that is a good thing. I say that as a leftist liberal. This bill is a big business give away, and the only thing it gives you is more sacrifice.
#49–Postman==just what are you disagreeing about?
I said it was “bad” and would justify further changes in the next few years.
Thats what breaking a log jam is “all about.” Not the orderly flowing of logs==that comes AFTER the explosion.
Still waiting for angry to correct my grammar on the same point he made. Meds must have kicked in.
Some of you people saying Obama needs to stay more leftist – have you been paying any attention the last year? Sure, some the fringe left is upset Obama made some pragmatic decisions for the stability of the Middle East, but those are certainly not the same people who voted from Brown today.
Over a year since the credit meltdown, and no laws have been put in place to actually stop what got us into this mess. As the jobless rate continues to rise, nothing has been done to encourage hiring. Instead we got a mammoth debacle full decades worth pet leftist projects which do not take effect for several years disguised as a ‘stimulus’ bill. This was followed by a year of more uncontrolled spending to give us a deficit triple what we had with Bush. Instead of realizing the economy is not fixing itself, the Democrats decide to push desperately for months on a Health Care bill for the benefit of a small minority at the expense of the many. While giving up freedoms to help fellow Americans would ordinarily go over well, the Dems lost focus on the economy, and were too proud to admit their stimulus bill was more about stimulating their agendas than the economy.
If they had waited and took care the top ailments of the country, they would be around several more years to work on health care legislation, and other big moves in their little game. Always play like it is now or never, and now will probably be the only chance you get.
When you sit on your hands for a year, bail out banks, Wall Street, and Corporate America while the unemployment rate is around 20% and forget about job creation, your constituency tells you to go fuck yourself.
It was said making laws is like making sausage, it’s not for the weak of stomach. It’s getting too difficult to govern with a 2 and 4 year election cycle. Obama started running for 2012 before he took office. I swear it’s JImmy Carter all over again. You don’t govern a nation sitting down and drinking beers for press. He has to get in the fight, not sit on the sidelines and cheer. The health bill is a over compromised piece of crap that needs tossing. As it stands it could do more harm than good. Yes I voted for the guy, it’s time he earned that vote.
So, I have a question. Is 52+% a mandate?
Wow! Lots of damage control from the liberals over what should have otherwise been a guaranteed Democrat victory.
Whether or not you like the Republicans or Brown, the mere act of voting him into office from a strongly Democratic state speaks volumes about our Congress and Presidency.
Real hope and change seems to have started. November will be a very interesting month.
See where posing in the nude gets you.
#54 Repeating myself today with this line, but what the heck. Here goes: Aaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahaha
Yes, little pedro, your guy won today. Good for you. So as a reward, for today only, you and your wingnut buddies can say what you really think.
And then tomorrow, you have to go back to pretending you despise the Democrats and Republicans equally.
Have fun. 🙂
Considering that Massachussets has better state-mandated health care than what is in the bill, I think there are quite a few idiots in this issue on both sides. Morons.
Democrat 2010 theme: http://tinyurl.com/44jdgd
🙂
#56
yes it is in Mass. where Dems outnumber Rep. 3 to 1.
120k votes more for Brown is sending a message to Washington. The problem is that they won’t hear it with their heads buried in the sand
So abortion extremism cost the Democrats a Senate seat and millions of dollars they could have used in other races this year.
Or perhaps Coakley won because she started her campaign 6 months before Kennedy died, and was ready to go at his funeral.