Monday after-the-storm punditizing. is there more clean-up to do after the snow or after the vote?

Paul Krugman:

Unless some legislator pulls off a last-minute double-cross, health care reform will pass the Senate this week. Count me among those who consider this an awesome achievement. It’s a seriously flawed bill, we’ll spend years if not decades fixing it, but it’s nonetheless a huge step forward.

It was, however, a close-run thing. And the fact that it was such a close thing shows that the Senate — and, therefore, the U.S. government as a whole — has become ominously dysfunctional.

Senate dysfunctionality is an under-recognized theme of importance. In fact...

Greg Dworkin (Arena):

The Senate is on the verge of passing health care reform for the first time in decades. The House has a better bill, and committee awaits. While it isn’t everything, it’s something. Those who prematurely wrote off health reform simply got it wrong. Those who recognize how dysfunctional the Senate has become got it exactly right. But as many commenters have noted, the vibrant discussion has been on the center-left as to how to proceed, while the right has had only "death panels, socialized medicine and Hitler". No new ideas, no part in the discussion. Self-exile is painful to watch, and bad for the country. This could have been a better bill with Republican input. Instead, Eric Cantor disease has spread to the Senate, and "Just Say No" substitutes for policy discussion. It’s sad, and it’s also not going to help Republicans get back in power.

and
Thomas E. Mann:

The much-pilloried Harry Reid led an increasingly undemocratic and dysfunctional institution to a stunning victory for the majority party. He deserves an apology from any number of prominent Washingtonians. His House counterpart, Nancy Pelosi, burnished her reputation as one of the most powerful and effective Speakers in the history of Congress. Together they succeeded in unifying a fractious party representing diverse constituencies and rightfully fearful of the electoral consequences of their action or inaction.

Dana Milbank:

Going into Monday morning's crucial Senate vote on health-care legislation, Republican chances for defeating the bill had come down to a last, macabre hope. They needed one Democratic senator to die -- or at least become incapacitated.

Jonathan Chait:

Does the Republican Party have any ideas? ...

In reality, both parties have plenty of ideas that they would like to implement if given the political power to do so. Republicans’ policy ideas primarily involve cutting marginal tax rates and regulations. The question isn’t whether the Republican Party has any ideas. The question is whether the party has any relevant ideas.

Karen Tumulty:

But there is one question about the process that people are likely to be debating for years: Did the road to passage really have to be this rocky? The shape of the legislation — and specifically, the fact that there were never going to be 60 votes in the Senate for a government-run public option — has been clear for months. So why did Reid insist upon taking the public option to the Senate floor as part of the initial bill he introduced, making the fight even messier and at times seriously jeopardizing Dems' chances of passing such a landmark bill?