Everyone else has had their say, so I'm going to post my take as well.
First of all.
80% of 55 is more votes than 95% of 45. i realize right now we're not even looking at 95% of 45. We're looking at 75% of 45, and so fine, run some primaries.
But none of those primaries are going to get us what we want until we have a majority. Until we can throw up a bill of our own and not give a shit if some Lieberman dick votes against it cause we got a couple repugs who will be willing to play the Senatorial game when we're in power.
The idea that one or two repugs won't vote for a Dem agenda, that they achieve anything better than 90% conformity is bunk, by the way. Look at the Clinton impeachment vote. The repug party couldn't even hold together on what would be, in their pathetic fucked up little world, the most important vote since the dawn of civilization.
So while i'm not happy this sham of a bill is passed, I simply do not ever expect the dem caucus to hold together with absolute conformity. I'm sorry. Not on anything. The min. wage bill a few months ago. Amazing. I expect no party to ever hold together better than 90%. I suspect if Greens ever had 10 senators, even they would be split 9 - 1. Possibly 8 - 2. I don't just suspect that. I'm certain of it.
I honestly believe Harry Reid did his best. And I know for a fact, the very reason why I will still support just about every democrat is because I know if Dems were in control of congress this bill would never even have reached the very consciousness of America.
We do this routine. We don't have the votes. So we trash the entire party.
All I'm saying is you could have LESS unity with MORE dem senators and have more power than MORE unity with LESS dem senators. It's not a false choice. If you think you do MORE senators with MORE unity, more power to you.
But my point stands. It's not spin. It's not equivocating. It's not a rationalization. It doesn't mean torture is OK. It doesn't mean you shouldn't be pissed off. Or that you shouldn't weep for yet one more step down on America's descent into what Bushco wants it to be: A Third World Country. All it means is this....
80% of 55 = 44.
95% of 45 = 43.
It's math.
I've expressed this in comments in other diaries, but what I haven't expressed in comments is something that I think people should keep in mind while they're enraged by the latest blow to our American pride.
It Can Actually Get Worse.
Between now and the first Tuesday in November, 2006, I would ask that people not focus on the latest defeat, but that we remember and remember it constantly: it can actually get worse.
It Can Actually Get Worse.