News...

Burr and Nelson are now confirmed as solid no's. No point calling, except to commend them.

Hawkins with another insider's report on what's going on.

To begin with, my source said he is guardedly optimistic that the bill will fail the 2nd cloture vote tomorrow. That is because he thinks that some of the senators who voted for cloture on Tuesday were doing so because they were being "senatorial" by allowing a debate. But, that only goes so far, and everyone realizes at this point that the Thursday vote is the final vote on amnesty as far as the base is concerned. In other words, a "yes" on cloture is a "yes" to amnesty.

My source, "Colonely Y," is also guardedly optimistic about cloture's defeat.

At that point, I asked about the "fool the yahoos" maneuver. Will there be senators voting "yes" on cloture and then voting against the final bill and hoping that they can avoid being tagged as supporting amnesty? He said that because of all the attention this issue has gotten, the base isn't going to be fooled and that anyone who does that will just have to hope that his election isn't close enough that thousands conservatives sitting at home can swing it the other way.

...

Last but not least, I asked him if the phone calls were still rolling in. He told me that there were so many calls coming in that most callers were getting busy signals and that it was absolute "pandemonium" in his boss' office today because the phones just never stopped ringing. So, make no mistake about it, the pressure, which was already relentless, has actually increased on these senators over the last few days.

I had to omit some of the best parts there -- Lindsay Graham, for instance, is now talking like a BAD ASS MOTHERFUCKER ON ENFORCEMENT because he's scared shitless about his crumbling polls. And yes, the staffs at these offices are aware the blogosphere is "out for blood." Of course, I doubt that matters much to them given talk radio and 80% of the Republican Party is similarly out for blood, but at least they noticed.

Multiple sources now reporting that Webb claims he had his "arm twisted" for the first vote -- his yes vote -- and feels he was treated shabbily. He seems strongly inclined to vote against cloture this time. Then again, this Corner scuttlebutt has Webb pulling the bullshit Yes on Cloture, No on Amnesty hoax. That tally only has 38 No's.

posted by Ace at 09:11 AM

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