Well, I hadn't really considered this problem before. Take it away, Financial Times:

In the Senate, the vice-president – who formally presides over the chamber – holds a tie-breaking vote and Mr Cheney could be called to exercise this more often with the Democrats holding only a slim majority, and especially if Tim Johnson, the South Dakota Democrat who was taken ill before Christmas, remains in hospital.

So, we've all heard about Speaker Pelosi's first one hundred hours, and all the things she's going to want to get done. Will the VPOTUS hold it all hostage because the Senate Dems can't count to 51?

The thing is, it's very nice if the Dems pass a whole set of legislation on the House-side. But if it all gets locked up in the Senate, what good is it? Either a)the Dems won't bring it to a vote or b)they will, and Cheney will kill it. Or, the Senate's reputation for ponderousness waters down everything further that had been charged through on the House side.

It'd probably go issue by issue, but there are especially Dems in the Senate who will wander over to the other side on some matters, not to lose sight of Senator Lieberman. (Certainly there are Republicans who will also drift into tactical cooperation with Senator Reid.)

Of course, there's a dynamite article by Carolyn Lochhead in the San Francisco Chronicle that suggests the GOP might not put up such a big fight on many of the one hundred hours issues - cooperating with the Dems and moving them toward the center will help the GOP re-burnish its image for 2008. On the other hand, for the Senate side, see this insight:

These are among the reasons why Pelosi and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada are promising to concentrate on oversight hearings and ethics reform -- which cost no money and do not require Bush's approval -- rather than grand new bargains to reform health care, for example.

(With the variety of major Bay Area-politicians, I suggest political nerds keep an eye on this paper and others in the months to come - I'm guessing they'll be offering some more dynamite analysis and breaking some big stories)

 

So, as usual, don't let those expectations get too big.