Having 51, in terms of any legislation pass is not that big a deal. There really isn't any substantial difference in what will happen legislatively in the Senate between having it be Democrat-controlled or Republican-controlled with a razor-thin majority. Especially, especially when the Democrats will be able to count on the votes of Collins and Snowe and Castle. What good are 51 votes if a minimum of three of them are gonna vote with the Democrats all the time? Now you're down to 48 legislative. But, but you do have your committee chairmanships. A-ha! A-ha! You do have your committee chairmanships, and when you have committee chairmanships you have power! And the majority leader gets to decide what comes to the floor.
So you get your chairmanships, you get control of the floor action out there. But 51 seats doesn't guarantee your agenda is gonna pass. You got Snowe, you got Collins, you had Murkowski voting with the Democrats. McCain, for crying out loud, now that he won he's probably gonna revert back to that. (impression) That's right Limbaugh! That's right! Crossing the aisle, that's what I can do. That's -- that's what I do best." So you have McCain, Murkowski, Snowe, Collins, Voinovich sometimes, and then Castle. So what good is your 51 majority? It doesn't matter a hill of beans legislatively (gasp!) but you get your chairmanships. You get more control over the money and how it's allocated and spent. Oh-ho, yes. So you see, whereas you might think these people are as interested in saving the country, changing the direction we're going at may not be the primary reason they want to be there. The primary reason they want 51 votes is to get the chairmanships.
You're not hearing them talk about an agenda. You know, it's a tradeoff. Is it worth having Republican chairmanships if Obama's going to be able to claim bipartisanship passing his agenda? If that happens the GOP brand gets further destroyed. This is why RINOs are horrible.
Why Senate GOP Wants 51 Seats