Ahh, Just Screw It

Steve M. opines that maybe...just maybe...it would be better for the Dems in the long run if Coakley lost, because odds are either Ben Nelson or Joe F'ckin Lieberman are going to screw over the Dems anyway and health care reform will never pass.

Think about it. We already know that a tight Coakley win will be declared a Democratic loss. Coakley will be the 60th vote for health care, but a bill might fail anyway (with the failure blamed on the majority party), or it might pass and continue to be (as it is now) unpopular. And then the other big fights of 2010 will go pretty much the same way: Democrats, on paper, have the numbers to prevail, but the bills will be fought and demagogued and lied about by Republicans and right-wing pundits and bloviators, and by opportunistic Blue Dogs, and the end result will be inaction, weak bills, or some combination of the two. This is what Democrats will have to run on in the midterms.

Now imagine a Brown win. First off, there'll be no chance anymore that the health care bill will die because of the incompetent cat-herding skills of Democratic leaders -- it'll die at the hands of Brown and the GOP's new cloture-proof superminority.

As will everything else on the president's agenda.

Now we'll have a new narrative going into the midterms: Obama vs. the do-nothing Congress. Obama and congressional Democrats vs. the Party of Obstructionism, the Party of No.

Am I crazy to think that just might be an easier narrative for Democrats to win with, or at least to stave off huge losses with?

I have entertained the thought.  But I've arrived at an answer, and that answer is No.  Because then the Republicans will know they can simply block the Dems from doing anything while saying "The Dems can't even get one Republican vote in the Senate."  And the Village will just move the goalposts anyway.

The problem isn't Coakley or Brown.  The problem is how the Dems continued to be allowed to be perceived by the village.  They were feckless wimps when the Republicans ran everything.  They were feckless wimps when they took back the House and Senate.  They are feckless wimps now.  Plus a Coakley loss completely destroys any hope of getting anything decent passed, the Village will see to that.

The Dems are damned by the Village if Coakley wins or Coakley loses.  Ergo, win anyway, keep 60 votes, and get something done.