Now if only Norm gets hit by a lightning bolt...

A fellow blogger said he was glad the Democrats didn't have 60, because he thinks it's important that they be able to win over the rational Republicans instead of having a party-line vote every time. "You ought to be able to convince at least a few of the other side," he said.

I kind of agree with him - though when the "other side" acts like the GOP has been lately, one begins to wonder what the point of bipartisanship is: buying off on crap just to say you got some of them to vote with you?

At any rate, it's about to be moot. Arlen Specter just switched parties.

And you know? With all those blue-dog Democrats around, we are convincing the rational opposition.

(8:30) update: See Paul Krugman for a word:

What strikes me, however, is the extent to which this is a self-inflicted wound. If Pat Toomey of the Club for Growth weren’t so diligent about enforcing supply-side purity; if Republicans hadn’t made Rush Limbaugh the effective head of the party; Specter might still be GOP, and the Obama agenda much more limited.

Instead, though, we have a party that seems to be in a death spiral: the smaller it gets, the more it’s dominated by the hard right, which makes it even smaller. In the long run, this is not good for American democracy– we really do need two major parties in competition. But I’ll settle for getting that back after we get universal health care and cap-and-trade.

Me, too.