Any analysis of the Balkens requires the consideration of many different groups

and shifting alliances over time

if you want to follow the story, then you should aspire to more detailed information, plus an appreciation of past records

only then can you appreciate the meaning of statements

and the possibilities for successful coalitions

good luck

Republicans overplayed their hand. Their congressional delegation no longer knows how to do anything but be maximally hostile and obstructionist. As a result, the message coming out of this fight is that Democrats tried to do something about a serious and widely acknowledged problem, and Republicans blocked them. This should be hung around the neck of every Republican running for reelection.

These are certainly true:

1.This is all the Republicans know how to do.

2.This is the message the Democrats should hammer home.

Which beg the question: Why did the Democrats take so long to let things come to this kind of gridlock? It's sickened me how, ever since they  nominally took over the Congress in 2007, the Dems have complacently accepted this new dispensation (which somehow didn't exist in 2003-06) that 60 votes are needed to get anything done, that they need to know ahead of time that these 60 votes are available, and that if these 60 votes seem unavailable, they should just cave in and not do anything.

Am I the only one who remembers how it backfired when Gingrich "shut down the government" back in the 90s? How the Reps were widely reviled as childish and loutish, and how they had to come crawling back?

If I were Reid, I would've been thinking from the start, "bring 'em on". I would've pushed important bill after important bill, and forced the Reps into the position of really having to engage, before the eyes of the people, their scorched earth obstructionism. Meanwhile there would be no problem existing where the Dems couldn't say, "We're trying to find constructive solutions, but as you can see the Republicans won't even allow a single bill to come up for a vote. So you can see who cares about your problems and who doesn't."

Even leaving aside the potential political bonanza, how long could the Reps keep up such obstruction, as a matter of simple attrition? I imagine many of them would get tired of it.
When you have the majority, you have the advantage in wars of attrition, if you're willing to use it. So it's just baffling that the Dems have been so craven in the face of mere filibuster and procedural threats.
But, unfortunately, that's all-too-typical of their record throughout the Bush administration.

I certainly hope you're right, that the outcome on this bill can be the beginning of a change on this front.    

Someone please let them know they have the majority now.  

Please explain to them that they control the agenda.

Tell them they can make the Republicans look like obstructionist simpletons.

Tell them to just keep repeating the sound bites -- here's what Republicans stand in the way of:

Efficient cars.  Clean Energy.  Green Jobs.  Get off foreign  oil.

It's really not that hard.

Recently, people have started stopping me in parking lots again, the way they did back in late 2003 when I first bought my (04) Prius.  

Only now they know what my car is, and they're stopping me to tell me they're jealous.

There's a lesson for Congress in that.

What the Democrats seem to lack most is an exciting long-term vision of how this entire country could look in a successful fight against global warming.