Senate Democrats no longer have a filibuster-proof majority with which to ram through their far-left agenda. And while they maintain overall control of the chamber, absent of a reconciliation move they must now receive Republican support to cut-off debate on issues.

Senator-elect Scott Brown became Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) shortly after 5pm today, sworn-in by Vice President Joe Biden. The vice president is constitutionally the president of the Senate, though President pro tempore Robert Byrd (D-WV) reigns over the chamber most of the year.

This is both good and bad news for Republicans. The good news is that they now possess the ability to stop the far-left liberal agenda. The bad news is the same. A great political chip to this point had been that the GOP had no power to do anything in Congress, so any bad legislation was entirely the fault of Democrats. Though that argument doesn’t entirely fade today, as Republicans still have little power to stop legislation and no power to pass any.

Besides, Democrats never stopped blaming the GOP for obstructionism even when they had a filibuster-proof majority.