START Ratified; Hey, Lawmakers Actually Did Their Job Today!

Our government actually made some laws today! What a concept! DADT repeal: signed. 9/11 responder relief: passed. New START treaty: ratified. But Vampire Weekend frontman/ KidsPost blogger Ezra Klein has a theory:

The answer, I think, is that there are plenty of Senate Republicans who aren't too comfortable with the class of conservatives who got elected in 2010. These legislators knew they had to stick with McConnell before the election, as you can't win back the majority by handing the president lots of legislative accomplishments. But now that the election was over, the bills that had piled up were, in many cases, good bills, and if they didn't pass now, it wasn't clear that they'd be able to pass later.

The incumbent -- and the outgoing -- Republicans know that the fact that Republicans will have more power in 2011 doesn't necessarily mean that they'll use that power to pass sensible legislation. So those of them who wanted to pass sensible legislation decided to get it all done now, even if that meant handing Reid and Obama a slew of apparent victories in the lame-duck session.

Good. Things were beginning to look a little optimistic. [ WP ]