The Norm Coleman vs. Al Franken saga has ended with Franken poised to take the second Minnesota senate seat next week.  We could debate the manner in which that seat was awarded but that isn't today's subject.

Instead, the subject today is the filibuster-proof majority available to the Democrats if they're able to keep all their members "on the reservation".

This will potentially impact many, many issues that will include things like the infamous "card check" push that unions are anxious to get approved.  There are certainly going to be other issues such as the cap and tax bill that now comes to the Senate, the health care reform bill or bills if and when those are debated in the Senate, and so on.

The Obama Administration steam roller has already seemed invincible on many issues; it almost defies the imagination to consider that the Democrat stranglehold could become even harder to defeat.

This outcome, expected by almost everyone and dreaded by many of us, has taken us to a whole new level of politics in the country.

That Coleman apparently was willing to end his fight when he thought he might be able to become Governor of Minnesota speaks volumes about the character of that politician, in my opinion.  This also confirms that the Democrat tool perfected in the Washington state governor's race a couple of years ago is quite effective.  No matter the vote, fight it at the precinct level to get more and more votes tallied and then rely on the hesitancy of the courts to overturn the outcome.  It seems to make little difference if those votes were or weren't valid; simply getting friends to count them seems to win the day.