In 3 weeks time, Senate Dems will, at worst, have the largest majority enjoyed by either party in 28 years. If truth, justice, and the American way prevail in MN, they'll have the largest majority held by either party in 30 years.
To put things in perspective, if 1 counts JoeMentum as a Dem (they're counting him as one), the Dems will enjoy a margin that the GOP last enjoyed in 1923. If Franken wins, they'll enjoy a majority that has only been exceeded for 4 of the past 40 years. Except for the years 1975-79, they'll never have enjoyed this kind of prosperity since Tricky Dick took office.
In addition to these margins, the Dems benefit from a popular vote majority in the recent prez election that their party hasn't enjoyed in 44 years. The Goopers would kill for this kind of dominance. They have never held >55 seats since the body was expanded to 100 members in 1959. Their nominee hasn't gotten this kind of majority in the past 20 years. The Dems will also benefit from a House majority the likes of which neither party has seen in 14 years.
Given this kind of power, one would expect the Senate Dems to be feeling their oats a little these days. One would expect them to finally be treating their opponents w/ the disdain they have so clearly earned. One might hope that they would rally together as a group.
A quick review of this site today would quickly disabuse one from such expectations. In one of the most disturbing diaries I've ever seen on this site, Trapper John painfully recounted the praise that Bob Corker received from the likes of Durbin, Dodd, and Reid for spearheading the opposition to the auto bailout. That's right--the lowly minority party freshman who just tried to push this country into a Depression in order to crush the UAW is now hailed as a Senate rising star.
Sen. Leahy, meanwhile, is being ever obliging to Judiciary Goopers who want more time to dig up dirt on the Holder nomination. I really don't know what role Holder played in the Rich pardon, and after 8 years of the unitary executive, signing statements, and extraordinary renditions, the issue seems almost quaint. The bar for AG was so lowered by Abu Gonzales that it's impossible for Holder not to surmount it. Plus, I recall Schumer and DiFi letting Mukasey skate through w/o ever taking a position on waterboarding.
As Kos notes, Reid is allowing Bayh to set up his own DLC mini-caucus. It's not enough that Bayh got his colleagues to all sing Kumbaya w/ JoeMentum and welcome him back w/ open arms after Joe spent the GE campaign pissing on the Dem nominee and donating to GOP Senate candidates. Bayh needs to have his own caucus to boot.
At this point, it appears that little will be gained by electing more DINOs like the Nelsons, Bayh, DiFi, Lincoln, and Baucus. Having a Wall Street whore like Schumer representing a blue state really doesn't accomplish that much. We need better Senate Dems far more than we need more Senate Dems now. Adding more dead wood to the pile will help little, if at all.
I don't know why the Senate Dems can't seem to comprehend the fact that we won this time in a way that the Goopers could only dream of winning. I've really given up on trying to figure out why they can't do so. I simply want to see us focus our energies on Senate primaries in 2010 and see if we can get rid of some of the "dry powder" accomodationists.