It is a good thing that Democrats rushed to get Sen Brown sworn in to become the 41st vote against the Democratic political agenda. Any delay would have been politically very risky. We all know that voters have long memories and would have severely punished Democrats at the polls this fall for enacting health care reform, financial regulation, energy legislation or any other elements of the progressive agenda.
Now the GOP, Fox "News" and the AM radio spectrum will surely appreciate and applaud the Democrats for fair play, and they won't accuse Democrats of incompetence and inaction and failure to pass their agenda despite large majorities. But even if they do, it will be a small price to pay when compared to the ENORMOUS RISK! the dems would face if they were accused of rushing to enact their agenda before seating Sen. Brown.
To see just how risky and dangerous such a strategy would be, a review of the long history of the US Senate is in order. While such nakedly political strategies may have been common in the early days of the republic, one must look all the way back to 2009 to find a relatively recent example of a party delaying the seating of a Senator in order to accomplish political gain. Back in those days, the GOP stalled seating a Democratic Senator, Al Franken, for months on end in a clearly bogus effort to forestall Democrats from seating their 60 seat super minority in the Senate and enacting the progressive agenda that voters supported with huge majorities in 2008. In that case, the Democrats wisely did not draw much attention to the GOP's clear procedural abuse of the voter's intent, because to do so would have risked appearing like sore winners. Democrats knew that the public would be outraged and they have long memories so it was not necessary to draw attention to the underhanded delaying tactics. While the full effects of the Minnesota delay in seating Franken won't be felt until the voters register their outrage in 2010, one can rest assured that the GOP is in trouble.