Favorite new Democratic Senator?

[Boris]

McCaskill and Webb seem to be pretty much useless. 

How exactly would you define 'useless'? Most freshmen senators (and most of the senate) is pretty useless, due that's almost by definition. Assuming that 'useful' within this context means 'left-wing voting record' what difference does it really make? If all 51 Democrats maintained strong left-wing voting records, it still wouldn't matter. All our problems would still exist, and ultimately, their solutions are a little more complex than merely electing progressives into every aspect of the federal government.

[Boris]

If all 51 Democrats maintained strong left-wing voting records, it still wouldn't matter.

Uh... what?  Then the wiretaps, military commissions, etc could never pass.

Not really. The wiretap program would still undoubtedly exist (as directed by executive order), with half the senate bitching about its legality but ultimately powerless to stop it. IIRC, the program isn't being re-authorized anyway and is being re-subjected to FISA. Also, the Military Commissions Act was passed in the last congress. It would have been rather nice if we had 51 liberals (or rather, 51 intelligent human beings) in the senate in 2003, of course. Now that would've solved a sh**tload of our foreign policy problems, at least.