Brown beats Coakley

I was pleased to see Scott Brown defeat Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts Senate special election. The Democrats changed the rules for filling a Senate vacancy after Kennedy died. This was the second such rules change motivated by considerations of partisan advantage since 2004. Yglesias defended this here :

... But when you have a state whose state legislature is firmly and forever in the hands of one political party, the smart thing is for the legislature to be constantly changing rules based on short-term considerations. ...

Perhaps it wasn't so smart after all.