The end of an era

It seemed like it was going on the length of “the Al Franken decade”… but the Minnesota Senate race is finally over, and soon-to-be Senator Al Franken is absolutely delighted with his win in the Minnesota Supreme Court of the never-ending election contest. Best of luck to Sen. Franken, perhaps the only “celebrity I have met while blogging,” whose quip when he began his long campaign was that he was the only New York Jew in the Minnesota Senate race who grew up in Minnesota!
This event gives the Democrats the (we’re told) somehow magical total of 60 (counting Specter and Lieberman) that supposedly makes the Democrats Harry Reidfilibuster proof.
Don’t buy it for a minute: neither the President nor his party has an agenda terribly much beyond keeping the current crop of Washington insiders happy, so we will see a “progressive-lite” agenda… sure, some more social spending than we would have seen under a Republican Administration, and come to think of it, I can’t think of anything else.
We can forget about restoration of the rule of law, tax fairness, electoral reform, health care reform (other than some tepid imitation involving nothing but private insurers’ wish lists), meaningful effort on climate change (yes, “cap and trade” is little more than “bait and switch”)… or… you get it.
Those who thought that we would get anything meaningful with the White House, a big House majority and now 60 Senators and a huge popular mandate… I’m sorry to disappoint you, but the only thing we have to change is… your expectations. The Democrats have proven to be… well, disappointing, if you happen to have any expectations. So don’t.
Just remember what the Republicans did with razor-thin majorities, an unpopular President and an agenda opposed by most Americans… and remember they could only do that with Democrats who, by and large, were jiggy with that program… not ours.
Al Franken will quickly learn just what a single United States Senator can accomplish in such an environment.
Just saying.