When numbers belie

Democrats in the Indiana General Assembly can only wish defeat had the same tart-but-darn-tolerable taste it has had for their cousins in Washington.

Triumphant Republicans, mere weeks away from regaining parity in Congress after two years of minority monkey-wrenching, morphed into a comparative Santa Claus for President Barack "No Tomorrow" Obama.

On its face, the shower of lame-duck largess could be seen as unremarkable. The New START treaty, after all, was endorsed by former secretaries of state from both parties. The brass was pretty solidly behind ending anti-gay discrimination in the military. The tax deal took care of the millionaire community, which was foremost in the hearts of the GOP "populists;" and may have planted a poison pill in that rightwing quarry, Social Security. But by Obama's battered standards, it was a miracle.

The progressive African-American history-maker who had to kowtow to big business for two years, and then get clubbed with its ingratitude, found himself celebrating alongside the Chamber of Commerce and its disciples as he awaited a new year for which they might have waited -- and denied him even his half a loaf.

With the Senate filibuster, with the absurd prerogatives afforded individual lawmakers, Obama could barely get a courthouse parking garage attendant confirmed with his majority. He had to contort health-care reform into a boon for insurance companies to squeeze it past the lockstep Republicans and the lobbied-limp Blue Dogs.

Next year, without the House majority, he can prepare to have his administration investigated for every missing paper clip. But perhaps he'll find further magnanimity in the newly empowered opposition as well. After all, the two sides already have united on the biggest issue of the 2010 campaign: the federal deficit. They've made it bigger. Perhaps we weren't listening closely enough when they explained their plans all those months.

Alas, in the Indiana legislature, the parties are not allowed to get together and have a deficit. Nor is there filibustering. With their numbers, Senate Democrats couldn't pull it off anyway.

The last time the Indiana Dems were in this total-minority fix, in the latter half of Gov. Mitch Daniels' first term, they resisted a flurry of unanimous Republican bills in the House by walking out -- or caucusing, as they termed it. They were branded obstructionists, as were the Republicans in the Congress just passed; and they got a lot less obstructing accomplished than did the Stop-Obama GOP.

This time, a saber-rattling, nationally ambitious governor and his overwhelming troops figure to take no prisoners. Unions, cities, public schools, the environment -- the hits will keep on coming. The minority Democrats, unlike the minority Republicans, will not be asked for generosity.