Posted on 06/07/2007 5:32:32 PM PDT by calex59
Liveblogging the debate on the Senate floor...
8pm Eastern. There's a motion to compel attendance of absent senators. Sergeant-at-arms sent out to look for the absentees. Attempting get a quorum of 51 on the floor.
Where are the missing senators? FAIR sent out this alert that may give a clue:
FAIR has learned that instead of debating amendments on the floor, Senators this afternoon are hiding behind closed doors, drafting a massive, 400-page amendment that will replace huge chunks of the Bush-Kennedy bill currently being debated. Senate leaders are hoping to use the new substitute amendment to reverse changes made over the last 24-hours they don't like, such as the Cornyn amendment on information sharing and the Dorgan amendment that sunsets the Y guest worker program. Leaders hope once this substitute amendment is adopted, they can get enough votes to end debate ( i.e. to pass a cloture motion) and ram it through the U.S. Senate.
FAIR is urging all members and activists to call their Senators' offices THIS VERY MOMENT and ask Senators to refuse to take up any more secret bargains. Ask that Senators be given more time to debate meaningful amendments that would improve the bill, and if no extra time is given, to vote NO on cloture!
If you can't get through to the Washington D.C. office of your Senators, be sure to try the district office numbers.
These IDIOTS pull this crap and we need to organize against every damn one that sells/sold us out.
This cannot go unpunished.
Could be. The cloture vote was lopsided.
Each faction needs to get their “issues” in, or they don’t get paid in return.
Just an auction. Disgusting.
oddly the issue of the legal residents they represent don’t come into play here.
Changed mind.
I think they’re hiding because they don’t want their votes recorded.
There is post about Trent Lott a few minutes ahead of this one in which he says that the senate must push this bill through. No thought there about his constituents!
We don’t need no more stinkin amendments. Just drown this bill. Kill it.
There’s a lot of money riding on this bill.
Lou Dobbs will be showing videos of Sessions, Dorgan, Missouri lady, for days.
Trent knows he needs to get this off his hands now.
Plus there’s the money...
I agree, keep calling these SOBs and let them know we are not going to stand for any back room deals. Let them know, amendments or not, this bill won't cut it. Enforce the laws, do the job they were elected to do and that includes, especially, Bush.
From Malkin:
“No sound on C-SPAN, but lots of activity on the floor. I see Feinstein, Schumer, Obama, Boxer, Kennedy, Lott, Hutchison, others clustered in two groups on the floor...”
Hillary sure enough will let Obama take the “lead” on this one. Smart.
Hutchison is all for the bill, but doesn’t want to seem like Kyl. They’ll promise her a lot to come out fo the closet and vote with the Dems.
It’s dead!!
I certainly hope so. I have been calling till my fingers are about to fall off, we here in CA were stunned when Boxer voted no on the first cloture vote and I have urged her to vote no on the next vote also. Hope she does, but am not counting on it.
That idiot Senator BrownEye was MIA for the critical Norm Coleman amendment which failed by a single vote.
Alright, Michelle has posted that cloture failed again, 45-50.
I wonder if Reid will really let it die or try again.
From Malkin:
8:55pm Eastern. It’s official. Cloture vote fails: 45-50.
Somber Harry Reid: “Mr. President, this has been a very difficult time...I was hoping that my friends on the other side of the aisle that a small group shouldn’t dictate what happens around here.”
Um, yeah. [me: reid is a liar. Small group? 45%?]
“We’re going to keep the bill off the Senate floor.” Proposes having more GOP amendments. “Hopefully, we can do that in the next several weeks...
[me: Great news! Weeks of more Bush/McCain guilt-ridden meltdowns!]
One of my colleagues who has worked very hard on this came into my office and shed some tears.”
Bets, anyone? Mine: Lindsay “Hissy Fit” Graham.
Reid extols the DREAM Act provision in the bill that promises illegal alien college tuition discounts not available to Americans and law-abiding immigrants—in violation of a federal ban on such special treatment.
Somber Harry Reid: "Mr. President, this has been a very difficult time...I was hoping that my friends on the other side of the aisle that a small group shouldn't dictate what happens around here." Um, yeah. "We're going to keep the bill off the Senate floor." Proposes having more GOP amendments.
"Hopefully, we can do that in the next several weeks...One of my colleagues who has worked very hard on this came into my office and shed some tears."
Bets, anyone? Mine: Lindsay "Hissy Fit" Graham.
Great, I bet the asshat Reid brings this back as quick as he can.
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