with the brown victory in massachusetts, i believe this is the first time since 2005 that the republicans have flipped a seat in congress from democrat to republican. is that right? am i forgetting any other election?
the democrats had an amazing run. i don't know if there is any precedent for a party to go that long through two even numbered election years without losing a single seat to the opposing party. all runs must end. i just never would have imagined it would have ended for the democrats in massachusetts.
which means that the senate bill will end up being the health care reform bill. normally, the house and senate would hash out their differences in conference committee, but with 41 senators promising to filibuster any health reform bill, the dems in the house will just pass the version that already passed the senate, thus avoiding the necessity of having another senate vote. the senate bill was the suckier of the two bills, but from what i can tell from kazakhstan, it's better than nothing.
a lot of things were wrong with the entire health reform effort, most of it the fault of the democratic leadership. but if kennedy hadn't been too sick to participate in the early negotiations and then died before the final vote, it might have been a better senate bill. if not for this loss in mass, there would have been a chance to improve it in conference.
