Live Blogging the Abortion
Vote to Go Down Tonight; Teddy Kennedy Flying in to Cast 60th Vote
McCain Maverickey in a Good Way, Rips "Bipartisan" Scam

Link to CSPAN: Kyl up now. Not as good as McCain. I think the point that much of this should be handled in normal appropriations channels is a weak procedural one, but that seems to be his main point.

Please stop with that. Don't bitch about procedure. Talk about substance.

Thanks to bugler for the link. Thune up now. He's good on this stuff.

Thune: We borrowed $800 billion from Revolutionary War to Jimmy Carter, now we're going to borrow that from future generations in one fell swoop.

Coburn: Very effective. If you like the way the Post Office is run, which just lost $3 billion, you'll love the way this money gets spent by the federal bureaucracy.

Hitting hard on the "Generational Theft" angle.

Notes that states are getting more in debt-relief than they have in actual debt.

Notes Obama promised to cut programs that don't work, but not a single gesture has been made to do so.

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Nelson (of Nebraska) speaking now. Blah blah blah blah. Thanks Susan Collins and a "bipartisan group of senators" (consisting of Collins and Specter... woot).

"We have cut the fat, fried the bacon, and milked the sacred cows." Sure.

Calls himself and his other "bipartisan" warriors the "Jobs Squad."

Vote will not come tonight. Looks like Sunday. Nope: Vote likely tonight.

Collins: Sure, no other Republicans are voting for this, but I want to thank them for their bipartisan input. Even though they're against it, you see, their input informed the debate, so I'm calling it bipartisan anyhow.

House bill was bloated and wasteful and ineffective. But these minor tweaks have made it pure awesome.

I have worked in a bipartisan way with my bipartisan colleagues to fashion a bipartisan compromise which will create bipartisan jobs and grow the bipartisan economy. Even though, you know, only me and the Scottish Senator are voting for it. I tell you, it's bipartisan. Did I mention that?

Susan Collins reminds me of Dane Cook's joke. She looks like she's smelly "down there." The only thing that could explain her smell is if she washes her vagina with dirtier vaginas.

Specter: Thousands of people losing their jobs every day. This old fuck is more wrinkled and nasty than Gollum's asshole. (Another Dane Cook gag.)

Ah, the reservations, like we heard during his impeachment vote. Many parts of this bill give Gollum's Asshole "heartburn" and should not be part of a stimulus bill, but part of the normal appropriations procedure. But he's of course still voting for it.

He's spending most of his time defending the stimulus against criticisms... from the left. He is defending the "cuts" made to the bill, as still being hugely generous.

Real quote: "There are reasons to argue this is a bad bill. I'm not saying this is a bad bill. I'm saying there are reasons to argue this is a bad bill." But of course this is the best we can do.

Is it? Seems if you weren't such an asshole you could have held out for a better deal.

Lieberman: "Tonight we're going to do it." Tonight? Have they picked up more votes?

Yup: From Hot Air, CNN says tonight, and Teddy's coming for it.

Sen. Levin: We're Just Going to Stuff the Bill Back in With All the Stuff "Cut" From It Anyway, As Soon as It Passes: Of course, of course.

Again, I suggest the tactic of demanding the entire bill be read into the record. I don't believe the bill is even finished.

McCain: Orwellian to call this "bipartisan." We have two, count 'em, two Republicans voting for this. Maybe a third. I've been involved in a lot of bipartisan legislation, but this isn't bipartisan.

Notes that the actual cost of the Senate's package-- when you add up the amendments they've added -- is actually $827 billion, seven billion more than the House bill. Plus $350 in debt service that no one mentions.

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Latest: Conflicting reports on whether a vote will be had tonight.

Kennedy flying in at some point to cast 60th vote.

Dianne Feinstein calls this the best compromise possible under the circumstances and will vote for it. Claims that $110 billion has been "cut," but last I saw, the bill is up to $805 billion. Which is just ten or so billion less than the House bill.

She's peeved that almost all school construction money has been stripped out, though. Apparently the NEA is pissed off about this. I suppose it's possible the left will grow angry at the compromise and spook some lefty senators.

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Stimulating Pat Toomey's Campaign Warchest: Toomey, Toomey, Toomey. It's time to settle accounts with Arlen Specter, even if we lose the seat. What good is he anyway?

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Assuming that the two Reid has are Collins and Specter, Snowe might actually be holding out.

Not Enough Votes? The Democrats have 59 seats, but I think Tim Johnson isn't in the Senate yet (or is he?) and Ted Kennedy is still out of the Senate after his seizure. So they have 57 votes, and need three. Not two.

I think.

Of course Kennedy and/or Johnson can heroically enter the Senate to cast a vote for a minute.

Confirmed, Nighthaven Says: Writes that CNN confirms that Kennedy flying in to cast a vote. There's your 60.

Math Error: Okay, I got that wrong. Republicans have 41 Senators; Democrats 58, because the Coleman contest isn't settled yet. Johnson is back, a reader says. But with Kennedy out, that drops them to 57.

But he's flying in. Allah writes he's in Florida, so he won't be coming back today. Or I don't think he will.

Does that mean they go home and try again Monday or do they cancel their weekend?

Silver Lining? It's not much, but Jonah Goldberg says that Obama is wounded.

'm sure we will get a stimulus bill. I'm sure Obama will count it as a victory. But the magic is gone, or at least an important part of the magic is gone. By accepting the stimulus bill and, now, fighting for it the way he had since I wrote the column, he's made it clear he's a just a Democratic president wth a conventional liberal agenda. He will have victories, to be sure. But he's blown an important moment in his presidency, and moments are very hard to get back. He has had his "behold, a God who bleeds" moment.

More there. He links a Star Trek clip for the "God who bleeds" proposition. I figured he'd be classier, with something like this. Danny, a "god," has just gotten bloodied:

(Spoiler Warning if you've never seen the must-see Man Who Would Be King.)

Better clip. Obama = Danny, not Kirk. And I dig the ending. "They twigged you, Danny, you've had it."

In a post I didn't get around to linking, VDH is talking up the impending Obama meltdown.

Some of us have been warning that it was not healthy for the U.S. media to have deified rather than questioned Obama, especially given that they tore apart Bush, ridiculed Palin, and caricatured Hillary. And now we can see the results of their two years of advocacy rather than scrutiny.

We are quite literally after two weeks teetering on an Obama implosion—and with no Dick Morris to bail him out—brought on by messianic delusions of grandeur, hubris, and a strange naivete that soaring rhetoric and a multiracial profile can add requisite cover to good old-fashioned Chicago politicking.

Chase him across the bridge.

posted by Ace at 07:42 PM

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