Maybe it is because I live in Pennsylvania, but I grow weary of reading paragraphs like this that do not include the name of my senior senator.

GOP leaders have begun reaching out to these [Democratic] centrists, hoping they will buck their party on Obama’s two biggest initiatives: healthcare reform and climate change legislation. Now that Democrats control 60 votes, Republicans must peel off a few members of the majority to stage a filibuster. Leading the pack of potential defectors are Sen. Ben Nelson, a pro-business Democrat from Nebraska; Sen. Joe Lieberman, a self-described Independent Democrat from Connecticut; and Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat who represents a conservative state.

Arlen Specter was a Republican until about five minutes ago. He’s hardly a reliable vote for the Democratic Caucus. I mean, seriously.

And there are actually a bundle of other Democrats who rarely get any serious scrutiny. How about Tom Carper of Delaware whose voting record would make more sense if he represented Georgia? Or how about Tim Johnson of South Dakota? You think he’s not in the hip pocket of big business? Has anyone noticed that Evan Bayh has lurched to the right of Rick Santorum ever since his dream of being veepee went up in smoke? Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln are basically owned by Wal*Mart.

It’s not just Landrieu, Ben Nelson, and Lieberman who are a problem. Max Baucus is probably the second or third most conservative Democrat in the Senate, and as chairman of the Finance Committee he’s basically in charge of health care reform. His Montanan colleague, Jon Tester, is a great guy but he’s compiling a pretty pro-business voting record himself.

I like Byron Dorgan a lot, but he’s cast some pretty egregious votes lately, and his colleague Kent Conrad is the chairman of the Budget Committee and a big opponent of using the budget reconciliation process to pass health care.

Frankly, I am not all that impressed with the attitudes of freshmen Mark Warner, Kay Hagan, and Jeanne Shaheen, either. I think all three of them are half in the bag for corporate interests.

There is a basic reality that we all have to face. The United States Senate is a deeply conservative body even with sixty members caucusing with the Democrats. Part of this I understand. Because Wyoming has the same number of senators as California, the Senate has a very distorted ideological make-up. But here’s what I don’t understand. Why is Wyoming crazily pro-insurance corporation? Why do Democrats in North Dakota and Montana feel like they have to do the bidding of Wall Street? I know the electorate in these states are socially conservative. I know they have a libertarian streak. But what the hell do they care about the stock price of Aetna?

I read in my history books about prairie populism. What happened to that? What is the major malfunction?

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