> Over here in the US, we had a 50/50 split in the Senate between the Republicans and the Democrats.

Actually, I was going to post along these lines as well, but you got there first. Anyway...

I might as well tell you now that I am seriously down on the workings of American politics. I've got British politics more or less sorted, but there are a couple of things over with you peoples that I really haven't a clue about. For starters, I thought most stuff was done on a 2/3 majority basis, so I wasn't really sure why one man changed much. Another thing is that I thought all senators voted independently (if they voted in parties the President could surely do what he liked, as there wouldn't often be the necessary 2/3 majority veto) so why does it matter too much if one senator defects?

This, among other things, has completely confused me. If some nice helpful person would explain it all to me, I would be very happy to try and explain the odd workings of constitutional monarchy.

Phil-"politics schmolitics"-bee