(Image courtesy of TPM) With the seating of Al Franken, Democrats now control a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Or do we?
Everything I’ve read leads me to believe this majority is a myth – that is, getting all 60 of them to agree on much simply isn’t going to happen. And my own, albeit limited, observations of the Senate confirm this. Yes, we may have one more reliably Democratic vote. No, it doesn’t mean that we will force through legislation that liberal Democrats have been clamouring for.
Here are a couple of other images – from Saturday’s Virginian-Pilot.
The issue was health care reform. Virginia’s two Senators, both Democrats, have divergent views.
If we can’t even get our Senators to agree, what’s the likelihood that there will be agreement among 60?
I’d say nil.
So this magic 60 really means nothing, other than bragging rights. Unfortunately, bragging rights carry nothing with it.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Is Mark Warner going to be a dissapointment? What happened?
Mark Warner is a major disappointment, and I was afraid of that at the time of the election. Unfortunately by then he was all that we progressives had.
Warner or Gilmore, I’ll take Warner anytime, he didn’t win like he did being a liberal. The real surprise is Jim Webb, if anyone, I thought he would be the one leaning to the conservative side! He has given this Democrat tremendous pride, he is showing that he is a true blue democrat and “gets it”!!
I don’t think Mark Warner has been a “disappointment”, I’m a yellow-dog liberal but I knew what I was getting when I pulled the lever for Warner.
We are in VA..and we must be pragmatic.
There’s a LOT on the table with healthcare right now and so much to be hammered out.
We need to remember that VA may have turned blue but it is still far from a liberal state.
Warner gets healthcare and before he was elected governor, he did quite a bit to advocate for the uninsured (I think his organization was the VA Healthcare foundation).
Webb has more legislation under his belt and has been through his first few years as a freshman Senator.
Let’s give Mark Warner a chance first before we start calling him a “disappointment”. He’s just over half a year into a 6 year term.
We need health care reform-badly. But let’s do this right and weigh the options carefully.
I’m not disappointed in Warner, either. Anyone calling himself a “radical centrist” isn’t going to suddenly start voting like a yellow dog.
My disappointment comes in the choices we are presented. (Warner or Gilmore? Easy – Warner.) But I’m also realistic enough to recognize this is VA.
Doesn’t mean I won’t prod them to be more progressive, though. And we all should.
It doesn’t surprise me that Warner is being a problem on health care. It would surprise me if he was actually a vote to block a public option.
That said, somebody should have a “come to Jesus” meeting with the Senator on health care.
It would probably be useful to adress the issue from the perspective of American businesses, which could be much more competitive in the world market if they didn’t carry health care costs that are subsidized by other nation’s governments.
Warner wants to be a pro-business Democrat. Health care reform would be a bonanza for every industry in America except the insurance industry.
Not enough moonbats for you, Viv?
Thank god not only for them, but for the Blue Dogs, who will bring a little sense to the Hill.
I’m sure there is a solution somewhere in the middle, but the present proposal will do nothing less than bankrupt this country.
Why are so few concerned that the deficit is pushing our monetary fund into junk bond status?
Soon not event the Chinese will wan’t are dollar.