“After Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts, a favored Republican talking point was that his victory signaled a rejection of Washington and it’s murky ways of doing business. Yet with stunts like this, it’s clear that Republicans are equally to blame for the perception of DC as rotten and broken. The problem for Democrats is that holding enormous majorities in Congress as well as the presidency means that DC is now seen as their town. For voters who don’t closely follow the antics in DC, it’s hard to imagine that a Republican party so weakened in terms of numbers could wield such power.”
—Katie Connolly, on Shelby’s Senate extortion
