The Newly Hatched Majority Leader

From Album 5

Well, first, it sure is rich to watch old Mitch complain about the dysfunctionality of the Senate...sort of like watching a serial arsonist carp about how everything's always going up in flames...that said, I think this post from Ed Kilgore is also worth considering in light of yesterday's results: working class, blue collar voters aren't dumb, but neither are they poring over the details of a political campaign. What they do see is that things haven't noticeably improved for them, with or without Obamacare...and given the, ahem, ease with which the hatred firehose can be turned up full blast...

Meanwhile, Democrats showed their usual spinelessness in fleeing from their own agenda if not the President himself, while the very large effort over the last six years to bring Wall Street and the financial elites back from the brink has been ignored...or ridiculed (McConnell called Dodd-Frank "Obamacare for the financial markets").

I understand the very strong desire on the part of Obama personally and the Democrats generally to be the grown ups in the room...but...sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. If nothing else, try...and lose because of McConnell's obstructionist tactics...and then call him out on it. Additionally, if you're going to get smeared with the "socialist" label, do some socialist things: like trying to bail out the general public in the same way you bailed out the banks. You might STILL get stymied, and blamed...but at least you tried.

Alan Grayson was spot on when he said (paraphrasing) one party is wholly owned by the elites, and the other is mostly owned...but where does that leave the rest of us?