"Biparitsanship" Returns

Apparently Republicans aren't the only ones who have been reminded of the power of 41.  Scott Brown's victory in arguably the most liberal state in the union has sent a shock-wave through the Democrat party.  It appears that once again Washington can hear its employer, the citizens.  It's also amazing how fast the left-wing soundtrack has changed.  Just days ago, the Democrats were defending their backroom bribery and threatening to ram Health Care through before Brown was seated.  After breaking his C-Span promise on the basis that completing his monument was more important than writing quality legislation, after refusing to listen to Republican suggestions or even meet with GOP leaders, are we expected to believe Barack Obama is suddenly willing to compromise?  I certainly hope the GOP remembers how it has been treated this past year, and recognizes that if a Republican can be elected in Massachusetts by campaigning on a Conservative platform focused on being the 41st vote against ObamaCare, then cooperation on Health "Reform" or any other parts of Obama's far-left agenda ought to be off the table.

While calls to respect Scott Brown's election are noble, they are not sincere.  Is it a coincidence that Barney Frank would suddenly become reasonable when a Republican wins his district?  Furthermore, his defense of Brown was tempered by a repudiation of the Senate filibuster--which he referred to as "the Senate rule which means that 59 votes are not enough to pass major legislation ...."  Though President Obama has so far refrained from calls to eliminate an essential brake on government tyranny, it's telling that his anti-GOP vitriol has been tempered only by the loss of "Teddy Kennedy's seat."  He assumes that projecting an appearance of respect for the democratic process he has worked so hard to undermine will cause Americans to forget the Democrats' actions over the past year.  I certainly hope he is underestimating our collective memory.

Liberal Democrats and their counterparts in the media are attempting to paint this election as a natural oscillation in the balance of power.  Like Obama, they are attempting to whitewash a year of arrogance, and save as much of their sinking national agenda as possible--a task no doubt complicated by the increasing number of left-wing legislators jumping overboard.  In all likelihood, it's too little, too late.  Americans have watched as two Democrat super-majorities failed to produce anything but kickbacks to union supporters.  In the words of our President: the American people have essentially voted on this agenda, and really what you have is a situation now where I think that the President and the Democrat Congress are going to need to figure out a way to save face and step back a bit. If they let go of their egos, it'll don on them that they were wrong on this one.  It will be irritating; it'll be frustrating, and they won't want to admit it.  So, to the extent we can provide the President and his cohorts with a graceful mechanism to say "we're sorry," that would be helpful.  And once we've accepted their apology, maybe then we can get to work on real solutions to our nation's problems.

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