The unthinkable happened last night. The senate seat held by Edward Kennedy was lost to the GOP by a 52% t0 48% vote in a special election. That put the senate makeup at 59 Democrats and 41 Republicans. One vote from Democrat dominance. One vote away from where it was two months ago when Kennedy could have voted. One vote and two months separated the Obama administration from having health care uncompromised. Was it really that important for the Democrats to get eveything their way?
The 60-40 split was required to shut down debate and get the Senate bill to a vote. Why did they wait? For one thing, it took the Democrat majority that long to get its own majority in order on the details of the bill. How great can this bill be if the deal making within the Democrats was as time consuming as it was?
The shere size of the bill was daunting. Thousands of pages of verbiage, more government spending. A well publicized deal with the Nebraska senator to exempt his state from taxation supporting the bill damaged credibility. Added government spending and the oddity that the taxes start four years before the coverage does. All of this was supposed to be to leave a monument to the late Massachussets Senator, who held his seat since 1962. Forty eight years of votes, deals, compromise.
The irony of the situation was that in Senator Kennedy's term of service, he undoubtedly horse traded and dealt with the best of his peers. His repeated election indicated he was certainly reverred by his constituents but also able to stay attractive to the demographics of a changing electorate. A sort of dealing in itself. Yet his great legacy fell victim to a failure on the part of his party to compromise on his legacy piece of legislation. Whose legacy was this really? Kennedy's? O'bama's?
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