Majority Responsibility Cannot Always Be Evaded

I’ll have a longer post following up on Rob’s post below in the morning. Before that, one thing I’ll say is that if Senate Dems really think that, in a political sense, “they have a ready excuse for not getting anything done,” they’re completely delusional. Ultimately, the governing party is going to get blamed for outcomes, and this is true even in cases where the Republican minority really does have the power to stop something. The fact that, for both the President and Senate majorities, political responsibility often substantially exceeds political power may be unfair, but it’s also a fact of political life. Congressional Dems had better do whatever they can to pass both a health care bill and some kind of good stimulus package, because it isn’t going to be the Republican minority that takes the hit if they fail no matter how much real power they have.