{"id":9730,"date":"2006-11-09T07:17:43","date_gmt":"2006-11-09T14:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/11\/09\/and-the-senate-too.html"},"modified":"2006-11-09T07:17:43","modified_gmt":"2006-11-09T14:17:43","slug":"and_the_senate_too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/09\/and_the_senate_too.html","title":{"rendered":"And the Senate, too?"},"content":{"rendered":"

All of a sudden, it’s looking pretty likely that the Dems will be declared the winner in the Virginia Senate race<\/a>, giving them the Cinderella Story majority … barely. Which makes it a whole new ballgame again some more, and makes me feel a whole lot better about any Supreme Court nominations the next few years.<\/p>\n

(I think it’s still too early to call it, but the coverage seems to suggest that Allen, still looking to the future, is afraid of being seen as a sore loser or someone who’d drag Virginia into a Florida-style election struggle. I think the stakes for the GOP are still too high, even with that, but …)<\/p>\n

Not that it’s all smooth sailing. Ginny<\/a> suggests that “Joe Lieberman just became the second most powerful man in the Senate,” capable of turning a 51-49 Senate into a 50-50, with Cheney to break ties, any time he wants (a la Jeff Jeffords<\/a>). The reality is, of course, that’s going to be true of any Senator, and on any issue. Party politics aside, there are conservative
\nDems who will cross over on some issues, just as there are liberal Republicans who will do so. Even without the cloture rules (and we’ll see how long it takes for the Dems to talk about “going nuclear” and the GOP to squawk no fair), the Senate is going to be a very tenuous balance of power.<\/p>\n

The main thing the count will provide is the ability of the Dems to arrange the agenda and control the committees. It will be interesting to see, too, if the GOP starts bitching about the processes they<\/em> put in place over the last several years that shut the Dems out of much of the picture. I’m willing to enjoy a bit of shoes being unexpectedly on other feet.<\/p>\n

Regardless, neither side is going to be able to take anything for granted in the Senate. Which, frankly, suits me just fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All of a sudden, it’s looking pretty likely that the Dems will be declared the winner in the Virginia Senate race, giving them the Cinderella Story majority … barely. Which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32270,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/22\/stay-classy-virginia-gop.html","url_meta":{"origin":9730,"position":0},"title":"Stay classy, Virginia GOP!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 22-Jan-13 7:28am","format":false,"excerpt":"Pushing through on an unannounced quick vote a GOP-favoring redistricting bill while the tying Democratic vote is at the presidential inauguration. \u00a0Now there's \"cooperative\" politics for you. Embedded Link Virginia Senate Sneaks Through Gerrymandering Bill While Country Watches Inauguration While the eyes of the nation were turned toward President Barack\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133932,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/21\/the-senate-parliamentarian-says-the-senate-gop-health-bill-needs-60-votes-not-50.html","url_meta":{"origin":9730,"position":1},"title":"The Senate Parliamentarian says the Senate GOP health bill needs 60 votes, not 50","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 21-Jul-17 6:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Senate has an elaborate interlocking set of rules that dictate how and in what ways it conducts business and passes bills. For most legislation, for example, the Senate must vote to close debate on the bill. These cloture votes require a super-majority of the Senate -- 60 votes [1].\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11790,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/01\/31\/dems_in_the_house.html","url_meta":{"origin":9730,"position":2},"title":"Dems in the House","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 31-Jan-08 8:52am","format":false,"excerpt":"While I've not been wowed by the performance of the Dems in Congress to date (I really dislike the Democratic leadership, and, hampered by GOP obstructions in the Senate, they've...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31307,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/10\/a-world-without-filibuster.html","url_meta":{"origin":9730,"position":3},"title":"A World without Filibuster","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 10-Nov-12 2:09pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A look at some recent Senate actions that would have passed without the GOP refusing a cloture vote. Of course, it's possible some of these might not have passed if the Senate Dems hadn't known they would be blocked, but still... Embedded Link 13 things that would have passed the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131880,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/25\/the-gop-senate-plans-to-go-out-guns-blazing.html","url_meta":{"origin":9730,"position":4},"title":"The GOP Senate plans to "go out guns blazing"","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 25-Oct-16 9:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"And by \"guns blazing\" Mitch McConnell means \"getting Karl Rove to help dig up $25 million in new dark money to desperately throw at some key Senate races that the GOP is afraid of losing.\" Panicking GOP makes major last-minute Senate investment Republicans are plowing a mammoth $25 million into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10596,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/12\/13\/balance_of_power.html","url_meta":{"origin":9730,"position":5},"title":"Balance of Power","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 13-Dec-06 4:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A 51-49 majority in the Senate is awfully fragile -- especially when the other side has the VP to break a 50-50 tie. Which makes the possible incapacitation of Sen....","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}