maybe next decade

Here’s the Senate definition of cloture:

“The only procedure by which the Senate can vote to place a time limit on consideration of a bill or other matter, and thereby overcome a filibuster. Under the cloture rule (Rule XXII), the Senate may limit consideration of a pending matter to 30 additional hours, but only by vote of three-fifths of the full Senate, normally 60 votes”

It wasn’t the immigration bill being voted on over the last month and most people have no recognition of that fact. The Senate majority pushed for a vote on cloture in order to limit the debate on the bill, not to vote on the bill, and end the Republican filibuster. Why not vote for cloture, limit the debate to 30 hours, and then vote on the bill? If the majority votes ‘nay’, so be it. What this really leads to one is overriding conclusion: there are 50 senators that are willing to vote for the bill; if it weren’t true, why filibuster? In fact, the 43-56 final tally from today’s cloture vote is horribly misleading. I was running a simple tally while listening to the vote and once the ‘nays’ hit 41, effectively ending the motion, there was a flurry of out-of-the-woodwork votes by senators who passed on the first round. Now they can inaccurately claim to have voted against the reform even though they didn’t. The list that I jotted down (those that threw in the late ‘nays’) includes: Barrasso, Collins, Byrd, Brownback, Coleman, Cochran, McConnell, Brown, Warner, and Inhofe. The net effect is that the people are held hostage by the nine senators that make up the gap between the 51 needed to pass the bill and the 60 needed for cloture. I suspect the number is truly less than nine, probably closer to four or five that ended the debate. I defy anyone to ask the next ten people they come across three questions:

1. Did they vote on the immigration bill today?
2. Do you know any three details of the immigration bill?
3. Would you support the bill?

It would be enlightening. I'll guess that 8 of 10 would say they did vote on the bill; probably 9 of 10 couldn't give three details of the bill; at least 6 or 7 of 10 would support the bill. It's all horribly embarrassing.

I see the Supreme Court finally issued the decisions on the Seattle and Louisville schools. The ’08 election is just as much about the next two Supreme Court openings as it is about President. I was going to invite Roberts and Alito up for the weekend…nevermind.

Love to all.

T.