Saxby Chambliss won his runoff election for U.S. Senate versus Jim Martin on Tuesday.  The implications of this victory are huge:  It’s now effectively impossible for the Democrats to acquire a fillibuster-proof majority of 60 Senate seats.

It also means it’s less likely that U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will attempt to use the power of the Senate to change the results of the pending election recount in Minnesota between Norm Coleman and comedian Al Franken.  Such a fight would require significant political capital, and with the 60-seat super majority no longer in play, I suspect Reid will choose to retain that capital for other purposes.

What’s really curious is how many democrats and liberals chose to vote for Chambliss.  Apparently, there was quite a bit of fear involved in the notion of Democrats having absolute power - and that fear seemed to pervade the liberal side as evidenced by the huge margin of victory that Chambliss experienced over Martin.