Me, yesterday:

Still, I’m sure we’ll soon hear Obama and Reid explaining that even 60 votes doesn’t mean anything in the Senate.

Reid’s spokesman Jim Manley about 5 minutes later:

While this is, of course, good news to the people of Minnesota, President Obama, and the Senate Democratic, Franken’s mere presence alone will not mean that the Democrats will be able to jam through our agenda, or make it any less critical for Democrats and Republicans to work together. We have a diverse caucus who represent diverse constituencies. No one’s vote is ever automatic.

In 2006, it was “Help us take back the House, and we’ll have subpoena power.” Not only did they take back the House, they managed to win the Senate too. When it came time to investigate, it was “We don’t want to abuse our power and risk our chances to take back the White House.” Not only did they (kinda sorta) take back the White House by a big margin, they routed the Republicans. But by then it was time to forgive and forget and start anew by watering down much-needed legislation because Democrats didn’t quite get to 60. Now they have 60, and from what Manley is telling us, all the electoral progress (and Obama’s win) have only served to increase the power of Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu who can just hold the caucus hostage any time they want.