Cloture Vote: 61-36

A "lean" bill, Ben Nelson pronounces.

The result is known-- except for how many squishes go along with this boondoggle.

By the Way: It's even more expensive now. It's up to $829 billion, ten billion more than the House bill it was "slimmed down" from.

Squish Bellwether? I haven't heard all the names and I'm not familiar with who's who among the freshmen senators, but the Republican senators I recognize are voting no. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, for example, is plainly a squish, but she voted no.

61-36. Final vote is 61-36. Not sure if we lost yet another squish yet or if Ted Kennedy cast that 61st. Three senators didn't vote -- I guess Gregg (abstaining), the undetermined senator from Minnesota, and one more. If it was Kennedy who was absent, we lost another one. If Kennedy voted, someone else abstained.

Another possibility is that someone like Mitch McConnell voted "aye," just to preserve some or other procedural right to ask to reconsider or that kind of thing. That happens a lot, and may have happened here.

Cloture Vote: 61-36&bodytext=A "lean" bill, Ben Nelson pronounces. The result is known-- except for how many squishes go along with this boondoggle. By the Way: It's even more expensive now. It's up to $829 billion, ten billion more than the House bill...&topic=world_news"> posted by Ace at 05:45 PM

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