Silver Lining

Because Saxby Chambliss beat – actually trounced – Jim Martin in the Senate run-off election in Georgia, Obama will not have a “filibuster-proof” super-majority in the Senate, even if comedian Al Franken does finally beat Norm Coleman in the Minnesota recount. Although the increasingly “bipartisan” Obama, shows no signs of doing anything that even a Saxby Chambliss would want to filibuster, this is arguably bad news. That, anyway, is the consensus within the liberal commentariat, as they set about, true to form (since Obama can do no wrong), praising Obama’s political savvy for not putting his own prestige on the line by campaigning in person for Martin --whom they’ve deemed, as of yesterday, a weak candidate and a sure loser.

But there is a silver lining to Martin’s defeat. That sixty-vote super-majority depended on keeping Joe Lieberman on board. Now there is no longer any need. In these circumstances, will the Democratic leadership find the courage within themselves to give that treacherous twit the boot? They would have done it before, had not Obama, Forgiver-in-Chief, intervened. Perhaps now, as the President-elect turns his full attention to reempowering “competent” Clintonites and Wall Street flunkies, he will decide he no longer cares – allowing Harry Reid and Company to do the right thing. I’m not holding my breath, however. Notwithstanding Clintonomics (or was that Reaganomics?), wealth doesn’t “trickle down.” But pusillanimity does – as would by now be evident to all, if there weren’t already so much pusillanimity in the Democratic caucus that a little extra here or there is barely noticeable.