41st Vote

If Scott Brown wins the race for Massachusetts Senate, he can thank Al Franken.

For as much as I like Brown, he's been pretty much a nonentity in the State Senate ... not for any lack of vision or intelligent positions, but because the Republicans don't even have enough votes to uphold a veto. Massachusetts is a classic one-party state, even despite the widespread corruption among the Democrats here. As a result, Brown has largely been speaking to an audience of party sympathizers that isn't large enough to fill a classroom.

But when Franken won the U.S. Senate seat from Minnesota in 2008, he gave the Democrats in Congress exactly 60 votes, which is a filibuster-proof majority in Congress, because it takes 41 votes to uphold a filibuster and the Republicans only have 40. That's what "inspired" the Democrats to pass a health-care plan without any popular support. But, the entire fate of this plan rests on the Democrats retaining this Massachusetts Senate seat, since Brown's vote by itself would be enough to permit a filibuster to stop the plan.

Having been the minority leader of a one-party Senate, Brown has skillfully played his role as the potential swing vote to the hilt. Never mind the fact that he is a far, far better candidate than the deceitful Martha Coakley -- his appeal is his role as the potential "budget-buster killer." None of that would have been possible if he were the 39th or 42nd vote for the Republicans in the Senate.