What Happened?

Anybody else shocked that someone named Scott Brown, who evidently was an obscure state legislator from Massachusetts, has come out of left field to undermine our chances of passing meaningful health care reform?

While we were sleeping, there was this little thing called a U.S. SENATE RACE which was necessary to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the liberal lion of the Senate, Ted Kennedy. It seems as if this race must have been taken for granted by many of the higher-ups in the Democrat party, because it wasn't even on the national radar screen until the last few days before the election.

The unbelievable significance of this race between Brown and Martha Coakley is that, if the Republicans took the seat, the Dems would no longer have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Translation: If the R's win the seat, they can block any piece of legislation with the procedural move known as a filibuster. The R's did win, and now they look to exercise their minority right of filibuster to block health care reform. Notably, it is health care reform that just passed BOTH houses of Congress. However, because of a number of different amendments to the bills passed in each house, there will need to be another vote in the Senate. And this is where the filibuster may come in.

From this point on, you will see incredible pressure being placed on more mainstream Republicans to lean to the left and help get this through Congress. You will also see pressure on the D's to water down the bill.

It's really fascinating if you think about it: one race, two people, a few hundred thousand voters, turning health care reform on its head in the blink of an eye.

And that's exactly the way our Founders would have it.