If Ossoff wins, the Democrats had better not waste one day of the next two years pushing . . . .

[Stinky The Clown]

. . . . bills, judges, laws, everything through the House and the Senate.

We have ZERO guarantee of holding either or both houses in the next cycle.

[Hekate]

1. GMTA, Stinky

[onetexan]

2. and make DC & Puerto Rico states!!! This way we'll get 4 more senators!!

[marlakay]

3. I was thinking same thing but they will be busy

With virus still.

[coti]

6. Biden needs to deal with that, Pelosi and Schumer

start passing the legislation filling in the gaps Trump exploited.

Trump showed us where the holes in the boat are while almost sinking us.

[marlakay]

9. So much with the environment needs to be fixed

Really thousands of things!

[coti]

15. Yup, we've got our work cut out. nt

[coti]

4. Yup. We have two years to shore up democracy itself

so that NEVER AGAIN can one man in the White House nearly put an end to our country.

[eleny]

5. Amen

Make those early Reagan months look like paint drying.

[uponit7771]

7. K&R, that would mean get rid of the filibuster !!! Otherwise we are were we still are.

[Stinky The Clown]

11. Absolutely fair game.

All the stops need to be pulled out.

Pedal to the metal

Swing for the fences

[moonscape]

14. I said elsewhere they will have to

lock Manchin in a room unntil he agrees to vote to get rid of it. I think there’s another dem on the record as being against it but not sure and don’t recall who.

Hopefully Repub behavior the last months has been enough to crack their resolve.

[southerncrone]

22. Surely WV has another real Dem to primary him who can win the general. He's the 51st R.

Sides w/them more than us. Why do we keep him?

[radius777]

23. Surely not, WV is a very red state

where Manchin somehow wins it due to his personal connection with the citizens of that state.

Let's face facts - Manchin, Collins, Murkowski, Romney et al are going to control the Senate - but it's much better than Mitch.

We at least will get cabinet appointments, judges etc confirmed - and likely many center-left policies passed as well. Basically the gov't will actually function which is what Biden needs.

[southerncrone]

27. I understand the value of this election. GA was a red state, too.

Manchin wins because he is basically a R.
I fully believe if we could offer that state an economic alternative to coal, it would no longer be red. The people of that state are poor and hurting. Drump promised them the coal industry was coming back. Most of us understand that it is not, nor should it, because of the negative environmental impact it causes. At one point I remember talk of windmill farms there, but haven't heard that in a while. That wouldn't offer enough jobs to replace coal, but it was something. They need something that offers them good paying jobs w/o serious health problems.

[moonscape]

29. WVa? We're lucky to have him. When/if he leaves

the senate we might not get another dem for generations. Without him we wouldn’t now have the senate. Pardon me while I bring him a cup of hot tea and fluff his pillows.

[Blasphemer]

8. Firstly, Biden needs to have a "friendly chat" with Manchin... nt

[0rganism]

12. Biden may need have a daily Manchin planning session

our fortunes will rise and fall with Manchin's moods
that guy is like political capital walking right now

[Celerity]

10. the filibuster is still in play for most things and McTreason McTurtle will carpet bomb with it

Even if we had won the Senate by 55-45 or so, there are too many Dems (at least 6 or 7) who oppose ending it.

Even more Dems oppose SCOTUS expansion.

Both are pipe dreams with the current make-up of our caucus.

[TomDaisy]

13. time to change the rules

[herding cats]

18. I doubt we'd have the votes for that at this point, sadly.

[Celerity]

21. We do not have the votes, even if we had a 55-45 majority, we do not have the votes

to end the filibuster via 'changing the rules of the Senate'. I have posted on this extensively in the past. There are simply too many Democratic senators (almost all of them centrists) against ending the filibuster.

[radius777]

28. Turtle's obstructionism won't work as well as it once did IMO,

as there is a populist element to the GOP now who will vote for things the old Repubs would not, especially in a pandemic when their own constituents are hurting. IIRC, there were about 20 Repubs who would've voted for the Heroes Act but Mitch would not allow it to come to the floor.

We'll get some stuff done, maybe not as big as progressives want but at least the gov't will function. With Mitch as majority leader nothing will come to the floor and gov't grinds to a halt. With Schumer in charge, even by the slimmest of margins, Biden will at least be able to govern.

[herding cats]

16. We barely have it now.

Manchin will represent his voters as much as he can, within reason.

Romney and Murkowski may be in play now on some issues. It's going to be a massive tightrope walk.

[Matthew28]

17. One of the top 3 things to get done is

to make Puerto rico a state.
-2 senators
- likely democratic electerol votes

This would help the our party hold onto power long term.

[herding cats]

20. That would take 60 votes at this point.

Remember the filibuster.

[Celerity]

24. Even with no filibuster, Manchin opposes DC statehood (maybe there are other Dems too) and is

not at all sold on PR statehood. Plus, it is not at all a guarantee that the Puerto Ricans themselves will even vote to become a state.

I would wager Sinema is against it too.

[herding cats]

25. I agree.

It's not in the works at this point.

[southerncrone]

19. Yep. Hit the ground running on our agenda. We know "reaching across the aisle" just wastes our time

and they proved they have no intention of working with Dems. We lost our golden opportunity in 2009 & 2010 playing nice with them.
They did NOT return the favor and railroaded through everything the wanted via Moscow Mitch once they gained the power back.

[Rstrstx]

26. Time to Breyer to retire

And any other liberal justice who may not think they’ll be around for the next, oh, say 30 years.

And in the true spirit of bipartisanship I think Biden should offer Clarence Thomas a cabinet position :-P

[gab13by13]

30. The most important thing

is to appoint a tough Attorney General. I believe that's why Joe waited.