Standing Watch

In a not exactly unexpected turn of events, it now appears that Scott Brown (R) has defeated Martha Coakley (D) for Ted Kennedy’s seat in the US Senate, putting an end to any hopes Obama supporters may have had for real progress over the next couple of years.  With the Brown win, the GOP now has 41 votes in the Senate, sufficient to filibuster anything the Senate tries to do.

With 63% of the vote counted, Brown’s significant lead continues to grow at an increasing rate.  With the exception of the Boston area, it would appear Brown has widespread support in the eastern two-thirds of the Bay State, while Coakley has barely taken leads in the western third.

The last time a Republican was elected to the US Senate by Massachusetts was when Edward Brooke won the election in 1972.

Some of the blame can be laid at the feet of the Obama Administration, which has largely ignored and taken for granted the people of Massachusetts, particularly their economic worries.  In addition, there was a growing, media and GOP fostered, sense that the Obama Administration was increasingly adrift and out of touch with the liberal ideals traditional to the state, as Obama sought repeated “middle-of-the-road” compromises with a hostile opposition that has no desire to compromise on anything.

But, in the end, Coakley has only herself to blame.  The total lack of enthusiasm within her own campaign, and from her, ultimately gave voters the impression she really didn’t want the job.  Only in the final days, when it was far to late, did her campaign make a token effort to at least appear to want to win.  By the time her campaign decided to actually try to win, Even a visit from Obama couldn’t save it.  Largely ignored by the media she never really courted to begin with, her campaign went into obscurity when Haiti fell into ruins.

Whatever hopes the Democratic Party had for getting things done just went right out the window, since now the GOP has a firm block for filibustering anything they don’t like.  I guess the only upside for many Democrats is the Joe Lieberman just became politically irrelevant to both the Democrats and the GOP, barring some unlikely defection from the GOP.

This is why progressives didn’t approve of the way Obama was doing things.  His “middle-of-the-road” tactics just resulted in his administration getting hit by traffic from both directions.  Now, health care reform itself is “off the table,” since there is no chance it will pass.  You can bet Lieberman will try to curry favor with the GOP by voting against it, regardless of what’s in it.

LGBT hopes for an end to DADT, which should have been done away with last year, gone, as are any hopes for ENDA passing or repealing DOMA.  Repealing the Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Reagan tax cuts for the top 1% that resulted in bankrupting the US Government?  Gone.  Shifting energy production to renewable, so-called green technologies?  Gone.  Trade policies that protect American workers and domestic markets and jobs?  Gone.  In fact, anything not in support of a corporatist economic neoconservative agenda?  Gone.

Whatever hopes Obama had for re-election in 2012?  Gone.  Democrats seeking election or re-election in 2010?  Gone.  Getting a single appointment through the Senate, including the ever critical and inevitable Supreme Court of the United States?  Gone.

We’ve seen gridlock in Washington before, and got past it.  But, with the chronically weak and “middle-of-the-road” leadership that now exists in the US Senate, expect the GOP to bring the filibuster to an art form.

Obama and the Democrats had their chance, and they pissed it away, as usual.  Whatever one might think about the GOP, you have to hand them this, they are unified and do whatever it takes to win quickly, without any negotiations or compromises.  The Democratic Party has proven themselves over the last few years to be exactly the opposite, weak, fragmented, and ineffectual, incapable of getting anything done, especially the things they were elected to get done.

Just like Coakley’s campaign.