Sattler reports: "Republicans tore defeat from the jaws of victory again and again to give leader Harry Reid a safe...majority in the Senate."

Elizabeth Warren unseated Scott Brown in Massachusetts. (photo: AP)

Democrats Keep The Senate, Add To Their Majority

By Jason Sattler, The National Memo

07 November 12

epublicans tore defeat from the jaws of victory again and again to give leader Harry Reid a safe - but not filibuster-proof - majority in the Senate.

Democrats picked up seats in Massachusetts and Indiana. Former governor Angus King, the new Senator in Maine, is likely to caucus with Democrats. Heidi Heitkamp also leads Republican Rick Berg in North Dakota.

Elizabeth Warren–the woman who predicted the housing crisis and came up with the idea for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau– won Ted Kennedy’s old Senate seat in Massachusetts by defeating Scott Brown (R-MA) - the man who helped water down Wall Street Reform. Brown’s likability helped him win the seat in a special election in 2010. In this race, however, he focused on trivial wedge issues popular in the right-wing press, like attacking Warren for her family’s claims of Native American heritage.

With Senator John Kerry (D-MA) possibly becoming the next Secretary of State, Brown could find himself in another special election soon.

Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) faced almost certain defeat until her campaign helped Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) win the Republican primary. After Akin’s comments about “legitimate rape,” Republicans asked him to drop out of the race. He refused. McCaskill soundly defeated him Tuesday.

Democrat Joe Donnelly defeated Repulican Richard Mourdock in Indiana. Mourdock had defeated Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) in the Republican primary, after Lugar was targeted by Tea Party groups for being willing to compromise with the president on foreign policy. Mourdock’ own comments about rape contributed to his lead evaporating, and he lost in a state Mitt Romney carried by double digits.

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) held off an extremely well funded challenge from Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel. Senator Jon Tester (D-MO) also appears to have held off Rep. Danny Rehberg in another race that cost tens of millions of dollars.

Democratic candidates in Arizona, Nevada and Nebraska came close but fell short of winning seats now held by Republicans.

Republicans will not have as good a chance to take back the Senate for several election cycles. However, their House majority, along with a willingness to filibuster almost anything, gives them the ability to enforce gridlock for years to come.

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+19 # dkonstruction 2012-11-07 12:11

While i'm certainly glad that the dems maintained control of the Senate the reality is that most of them in the Senate are moderate to conservative and i would hardly call them progressive so despite the fact that Obama won and the dems kept control of the Senate, if people think that yesterday "solved" anything or that somehow now the dems as a whole are going to take up the mantle of genuine and substantive progressive change folks are going to be sadly disappointed at best (and it is out of such disillusionment that the seeds of real fascism are born and nurtured).

Time to continue to organize, protest, demand and most important build viable alternative institutions (including publicly owned and controlled financial institutions and worker/union control of their pension funds so they can be invested more "responsibly" and "productively") that can provide real world examples and a road map for the rest of the country for what real progressive change can look like.

If we defer to Obama (once again seeing him as the "savior") or to the dems without building and sustaining the kind of progressive social movement that has real leverage and can exert real political pressure nothing is going to change. we have an opportunity but that's all....now, it's a matter of whether we make the most of it or, as has been done too often in the past, simply squander it. So, bottom line, it's not up to Obama and the dems but rather it's up to us.

Time will tell.

+6 # pbbrodie 2012-11-08 04:40

I would like to add that there were some important gains made by progressives in the Senate, due to a lot of very hard work by progressives, like Warren in Mass., among several others. This is what we as progressives need to concentrate on continuing to do. The Tea Party took over the Republican Party and progressives can do the same with the Democratic Party. There were seven senators elected who have signed a pledge to reform the filibuster, for instance, and this is extremely important. Another comment was made here that Harry Reid should change the filibuster rules but it isn't quite as simple as that. He has to have the votes to do it and can't wave a magic wand to make it so. A major part of building your "building and sustaining the kind of progressive social movement that has real leverage" is to immediately begin identifying viable progressives candidates for office, convincing them to run, and supporting them in every way possible.

0 # Joe Bob 2012-11-10 11:31

Hear ye, hear ye.

+12 # TrueAmericanPatriot 2012-11-07 12:46

The best thing that Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, is neutralize that filibuster to a point that it CANNOT BE ABUSED by "turtle" McConnell and his gang of rebels. The business at hand needs to be done and this bickering needs to stop. Take charge, Senator Reid, and limit the votes to a SIMPLE MAJORITY. FORWARD!!!!!

+4 # JSRaleigh 2012-11-08 11:45

Quoting TrueAmericanPatriot:

The best thing that Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, is neutralize that filibuster to a point that it CANNOT BE ABUSED by "turtle" McConnell and his gang of rebels. The business at hand needs to be done and this bickering needs to stop. Take charge, Senator Reid, and limit the votes to a SIMPLE MAJORITY. FORWARD!!!!!

ff

I'd like to see the filibuster rules reformed to where you have to actually filibuster. If you want to hold up legislation, you have to actually stand up on the floor and speechify. You can filibuster as long as your voice holds out. But all other business has to come to a halt while you do it and you can't invoke a filibuster without actually being willing to hold forth ad nauseum.

Bring back the "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" rules.

+19 # papabob 2012-11-07 15:34

Thank God - he won!! This election shows us with out a doubt that America recognizes and accepts Obama as our leader.

But please take credit for what you have done, Reader Supported News. Along with the hard job you picked for yourselves, and the articles you ran from your many contributors, you helped carry the flag.

Good for you, RSN. You done good.

+7 # eldoryder 2012-11-08 03:40

The very BEST thing about Democrats holding the Senate is that there will be a DEMOCRAT holding the Chair of the Judiciary Committee.

Which means that despite Republican opposition, ANY Obama nominee to the Supreme Court will be given a chance for a complete up-and-down vote before being seated.

And it looks as though our President is going to get at least one, and maybe two chances to appoint new nominees over the next four years. If he can tip the balance from a conservative majority to a progressive/mod erate majority in the Third Branch Of Government, this may very well be his biggest accomplishment to date.

-20 # MidwestTom 2012-11-08 05:12

As an employer I would say that most of the time gridlock is good.

+5 # dkonstruction 2012-11-08 11:07

Quoting MidwestTom:

As an employer I would say that most of the time gridlock is good.

Especially if you are a large employer that pays little or no taxes and are sitting on tons of cash rather than investing it back into the country to which you profess allegiance by hiring more workers.

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