Partly because a decent public servant turned out to be a shitty candidate and partly because the national media loves a "collapse of a frontrunner" narrative, there will perhaps be a Republican Senator from Massachusetts pretty soon.

The New Republic's Jonathan Chait and Jonathan Cohn are both trying to explain how Democrats could salvage health care reform with a mere 19-seat majority in the Senate and 78-seat majority in the House. (Losing one special election will definitely be taken as a sign by all Serious Observers that the Democrats should abandon their health care plan and probably just pass a tax cut for pharmaceutical executives instead.) Uh, basically, they make it sound possible, but there is no way in hell Olympia Snowe is going to support anything and no one has the balls to try reconciliation and the House will not want to vote for an unaltered Senate bill.

So, basically, that's it for health care. Thanks, Massachusetts!