Word: vote
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...long last, Senate Democrats can celebrate the milestone they have dreamed of ever since the start of the last election campaign: a presumably filibuster-proof 60-vote majority in the U.S. Senate. Not only that, but they have added a famous face with a high TV-recognizability factor to help with fundraising - and brought someone with a decent sense of humor to the world's most deliberative body. (See the top 10 actors turned politicians...
...terms of actual voting, the Democrats are still short of their 60-vote majority, given that Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd are on indefinite medical leave and are only likely to return for the most important votes. Not to mention the fact that governing the Senate, as former majority leader Trent Lott once put it, is like herding cats. The Dems have such a wide umbrella that finding issues that unite both ends of the 60-vote spectrum can be tough...
...there are sure to be times when Franken's vote will make a difference. And not always in ways that will ease Senate majority leader Harry Reid's burden. Franken, for example, was a vocal opponent of the bank-bailout plan and could try to move the planned reregulation of Wall Street to the left. Still, Senate Democrats will benefit from having one more friendly face in the chamber - and one less Republican arm to twist. "It's one more vote," Dick Durbin said with a beleaguered laugh when asked last week about the difference Franken might make...
Here are five key areas where Franken's vote could have decisive impact...
...Health Care This was always going to be a heavy lift for the Obama Administration, and an extra vote in the Senate could mean the difference for passage. Franken supports an individual mandate and has said he'd like to see all children under the age of 18 covered by a single payer system - though he hasn't weighed in on a public plan to compete with the private plans in each state, perhaps the most contentious issue in the negotiations right now. Nevertheless, it's clear from his campaign statements that Franken will be a reliable Democratic vote...