So Massachusetts voters have elected Scott Brown rather than Martha Coakley. A Republican rather than a Democrat will assume the vacant seat in the senate. The Democrats now have 59 rather than 60 seats there. Massachusetts, a decidedly Blue state, has elected a Republican senator to take over for legendary senator Edward Kennedy- the longest champion of the health care cause that the senate had.

It begs the obvious questions: How did this happen? What are the Democrats going to do about it?

It happened because… well, I think… it happened due to the... Fact is, nobody really knows exactly why it happened. It could have been that voters are simply sick of the Democratic stranglehold on the State. It could be a reflection of national disapproval for what President Obama and his administration have (or have not) accomplished during his/their first year in the White House. It could be that, as many pundits are saying, Scott Brown ran a targeted, solid campaign that spoke to the people while Martha Coakley ran a poor, distant campaign. It could be that this whole Tea Party saga is actually a real influence. It could be that Independent voters now swing to the right, whether by choice or by reaction. It could be a  lot of things- point is, it happened.

And while the true impact may not be felt for a while, it is clear immediately that the health care reform legislation is now in trouble. It took a lot of begging and pleading to get it to where it is right now, and while 59 seats does not mean that it won’t pass at all, it does mean that the Democrats cannot get the Republicans to not filibuster- meaning they will have to do some political wrangling to make anything happen, and even then it may be watered down. So, what now?

Second question: What are the Democrats going to do about it?

"We're not going to rush into anything. There are many different things that we can do to move forward on healthcare, but we're not making any of those decisions now," said Senate Majority Leader Reid.

Uh-huh.

Obama is saying that his administration will move forward with the agenda. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that the Dem’s will move forward.

And there are many things that all Democrats rallied behind- extending coverage to 30 million of the uninsured Americans- creating insurance exchanges to hopefully hold costs down- keeping insurance companies from denying people with pre-existing conditions

There is talk that people will rally around a more general bill that addresses these shared attributes, and there is other talk that the Senate could go for something more bold- either sending the bill as-is over to the House for a vote or voting on it through a process called reconciliation, which allows the House to make changes and then the Senate to ratify them as budget issues.

Any of those will be tough. The balance of power is tipping, and the Democrats waited too long to make anything happen with their President and their majority.

Photo Credit: Mark Sardella (via Flickr under CCL)