Beantown Beatdown in the Bay State

I must admit, I never once thought I'd see a Republican Senator in Massachusetts for the duration of my life. I kept that whimsical fantasy right next to my dreams of the Raiders winning the Super Bowl and scientists proclaiming cigar smoke, scotch, prime rib and copious amounts of sex to be the magic elixir for never eroding health.

Thanks to Scott Brown and the corpse of Martha Coakley, I can now check one of those bad boys of the list!

Even as the polls showed Brown gaining all the momentum, it was hard to feel good about it because if the Dems had decided to bite the unpleasant Coakley bullet and head to the polls, Brown would have been toast.

I could never contemplate a scenario where a significant number of Democrats would go to the booth and pulled the lever for a Republican. It's insane to think about but it seems to have happened and Scott Brown bashed her to the tune of 52-47.

That's an incredibly large margin considering the State and the voter registration disparity. All of those early charges of possible voter fraud and lawyers heading to Boston seem foolish in hindsight. Like a State that's 90% liberal could somehow be rigged by a conservative anyway.

Besides Coakley, the real loser is the Democratic Congress. They couldn't get anything passed with a filibuster proof majority in both houses. Tonight's result has put them in a hell of a bind. If they ram through legislation right now, they are actively defying the will of the people by not waiting for Brown to be seated. If they wait for Brown, he'll vote against it and the fragile coalition will fall apart as Reid looks for that elusive 60th vote. You can sure as hell bet that the so called Blue Dogs (I call them Red Cowards but whatever) Lincoln, Lieberman, Bayh, Landrieu and Nelson are now officially terrified. They may be looking for anyway out of this mess. In the House, Pelosi has indicated she's going to be even more hard line and leftist. She is completely nuts so her kamikaze dive to the far left might be too much for the skittish Senate and suddenly very vulnerable House libs to take. You might see a whole bunch of Representatives start withdrawing their votes based on crap issues like the cost or Stupak amendment. None of them care about those things but the do make a convenient excuse to back out.

Regardless of the long term outcome, tonight was a momentous occasion. One of those rare political nights where even the casual observer stands up to take notice of the fact that the people have decided to make a statement and a loud one at that.

I myself am just happy that the scientists can now get back to my list.




(photo from WashingtonPost.com)