Coincidence?
Partially. A while back, I wrote that Roy Moore's weakness as a candidate was helping the GOP with their tax bill because it emphasized the need to move quickly. However, all of the hard work was really already done. Once the Senate passed a bill, it was a done deal. Even if House-Senate negotiations had broken down completely, and Roy Moore lost, and Susan Collins flipped, and a bunch of other bad stuff had happened, the House could just pass the Senate's bill, and the Republicans could have their corporate tax cut. Once the Senate voted, the hard work was done. They'd rather have a reconciled bill, and that's easier with Luther Strange casting a vote than with Doug Jones, but they were already on an accelerated timeline anyway. So, not much to see here.
In other terms, what does Moore's loss do to policymaking? Surprisingly little, in my opinion. The Republican Senate majority goes from a 52 seat majority to a 51 seat majority. Now, Collins and Murkowski combined can defeat anything, as opposed to needing McCain or some other apostate to go along with them. Does that matter?
No. After the tax bill, the GOP has shot their wad anyway. What was their next agenda item? Um...
Uh...
[crickets...]
They got nothin'. With or without Roy Moore, they got nothin'.
What is left is a party in disarray, one way or another. We have another shutdown fight brewing, which shouldn't be a thing during unified government, but the GOP is dysfunctional, and that's kind of the point.
Collins wants something to stabilize the individual markets for health insurance. There's noise about DACA. Sure, there is talk about policy. Will anything serious happen?
No. Would anything serious have happened with Roy Moore? No. So, what's the difference? Senate pages are often under 18, and Roy Moore won't have access to them. So, hey, that's something.
Does this put the Senate in play for 2018? That's another matter...