More dysfunction in store for the Senate

>> things that's turning out to be more interesting than anything else tonight is the senate . chris hayes joins us nous to understand what's going on in the senate and what this meeverns overall.

>> i think one of the fascinating for tonight's election particularly for the senate has been what they call asymmetrical polarization. there's two political scientists who have come up with a score in which they rank the senate from 1 being the most liberal to 100 being the most conservative. even going into the night we knew there was going to be a big hole in the middle of those rankings. dick luger who was in the 40s or 50s was knocked out by richard mourdock . we now know that seat is going to go to joe donnelly . scott brown is in there, he loses tonight as well. olympia snow is the in the middle, she will not be returning. so what we know is we are going to enter a senate that is more polarized than the senate we just came from. the what that means is we are going to have an institution that is going to be more prone to dysfunction because it doesn't have the rules to govern itself like a majority body. we increasingly have a mismatch between the way the parties works and the way the senate works as a de facto 2/3 or almost 2/3 super majority body and there's one new member who plans to fix na and that's an gus king. he is from maine and he made the strange choice to make senate filibuster reform the center of his campaign. it will be interesting to see if there is more momentum in the senate to really understand filibuster reform as the body grows more dysfunctional.

>> you look at angus king in maine, you think he's a special case . you think about these guys in a body who is rendered dysfunctional in some cases unable to make basic law because of part son war in that state, the republican side willing to use the filibuster to shut down the senate completely.

>> talk about candidate refusing to ask the central question in a campaign question. refusing to answer it. he would not answer the question. who will you vote for for majority leader of the senate . the idea a few years ago that you could possibly run a senate campaign and win with that was impossible, and now you see the sense it makes in the crazy necessary that's going on.

>> i remember a tv series based on that concept? mr. sterling. you know what? let's be honest about it. chris did mention it and i guess it's still unofficial. everybody expects him to caucus as the democrats.

>> he agrees with the democrats.

>> you have to caucus in two parties. there's no seat in the middle unless you want to do nothing as a snar.

>> plenty of incentives to be in the president's parties.

>> that's right. you get the privilege. you get the senate toerl privilege.

>> there's no doubt that the republicans are taking a hit tonight in the senate . if president obama wins re-election, is he going to have the political capital to say don't obstruct me.