It’s a problem. What do you think we will accomplish in this congress with a hostile senate and administration? We need to win the next election. The best we can do for the next year and a half is to keep it from getting worse.
We don’t really know about the Senate because Pubbies haven’t tested it. A lot of Dems in not-that-blue states (like my state’s McCaskill) have to face the voters in 2012. Why don’t the Pubbies test them by giving the Senate to vote upon the things they promise us.
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Best case: they peel some Dems off the majority and pass some legislation. (That is what Reagan did.)
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Worst case: they give Pubbie challengers something to use against the Dems in 2012.
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IMO the current Pubbie leaders aren’t getting the job done, either because they aren’t up to it in terms of political skill, or because they really don’t want to do that in which they pretend to be interested. In either case, it warrants their dismissal.