Doesn't hurt that the Democrats in question, Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Jon Tester of Montana, are all up for reelection in 2012.
Harry Reid has 53 Democratic votes in the Senate and if he loses these four and perhaps more, then Republicans could very well get a simply majority on certain issues, especially issues such as Obamacare to which the majority of the public still opposes as a whole.
That isn't all though.
The Politico:
And it’s not just health care. The senators are prepared to break with the White House on a wide range of issues: embracing deeper spending cuts, scaling back business regulations and overhauling environmental rules.
Obamacare has been an albatross around the necks of Democrats with many believing the trouncing or as Obama phrased it, the shallacking, the Democrats suffered in November which cost them six seats in the Senate and the largest gains seen for a party in the House as Republicans won control of the House of Representatives, was partly due to Obamacare and how Democrats and Obama jammed the law through against the opposition of Americans.
No doubt vulnerable Senate Democrats will still have that albatross around their necks in the 2012 elections, with each vote against repeal being used in campaigns against them.
Whether they work with Republicans in repealing the most egregious parts of Obamacare because they see the writing on the wall and know the courts may very well rule against the Obama administration or whether they are doing this to simply save their Senate seats, this is an opportunity to start dismantling as much of Obamacare as possible.
Then if Obama vetoes any legislation that hits his desk which would do just that, that albatross will then be hanging on his neck, visibly, to be used against him in his reelection bid in 2012.
And it will be.
.