Anyone watching the senate?

[whometense]

Leahy's giving a wonderful speech about the Patriot Act. It sounds like he plans to vote against it? At least he's very unhappy with it. And he's slammed the Bushies pretty hard.

[Mass]

1. Great speech - He did another one yesterday

As far as I understood, he is planning to vote NO (but I am not 100 % sure).

We will know soon. Final vote at 3 pm.

I know I have been rambling on that, but given the way the Democrats have been treated both on the House and the Senate on this, I dont see why they are running to vote the Act like that. They had a chance to force a renegotiation on Tuesday and they missed it.

[whometense]

3. I admit to having been somewhat

disengaged on it. The whole thing makes my head hurt. Leahy seemed to explain the process pretty well. Maybe they are just convinced this is the most they'll get? Hatch was predictably bitter about those who were standing in the way and insisting on civil liberties protections (tsk, tsk) What a creep he is.

[jenndar]

2. Leahy really impressed me today.

He's just so good at opposing the issue without politicizing it, and his promise to keep working on the PA was reassuring. And of course, I thought calling the administration "legislative Darwinists" was beyond brilliant.

[Mass]

4. I also liked he acknowledged the difficulty of the vote

and the fact that you are in front a difficult choice between voting for a bill that improves things and voting against a bill that falls short of improving it enough.

No "I am a hero because I vote like that"! That was good to hear.

[whometense]

5. He did vote no,

as did Durbin. Kennedy voted for it. I'm confused.

[Mass]

6. Me too.

Particularly for Durbin who said he would support it.

The following voted against cloture but are voting for the bill.

Boxer AYE? Even more surprising.

Dodd AYE

[whometense]

7. Patty Murray - NO

What is going on???

Kerry - AYE

[Mass]

8. Dont know - Some of the most liberal democrats are apparently voting AYE

[whometense]

10. I have no idea.

My inclination is to trust JK - he certainly has a reason for voting the way he did. I am curious, though.

There will undoubtedly be a big yell in GD and at Kos that he "chickened out" or some such, but with Boxer and Kennedy voting the same way, it's hard to see how that sticks. It seems like the easiest thing for him would have been to vote no.

[Mass]

11. There is already one thread by one of our favorites on this base

because of course he wants to run, so he should not have voted for it. Kennedy and Boxer dont want to run, so they dont matter. (What a logic)

[karynnj]

12. What's amazing was how predictable the response

was, down to who were the key responders. Some have no more concept than a 2 yr old that in negotiation you have to occasionally give in. The key might be that if they had won cloture and had another round of negotiations, nothing would improve and it would be a stalemate keeping the original law in effect. It was never a possibility to have no patriot act.

Politically, Feingold will obviously use this to deferentiate himself - but how big are the differences between the bill he voted for and this one.

[whometense]

13. Not to sound too elitist,

but the whole issue may be way too complex for some of those yahoos. Even Feingold, their golden boy, is in favor of some form of the Patriot Act.

[Mass]

14. What is maddening is that, when it mattered, nobody cared

The threads on the PA and the need to act were sinking.

In addition, the person who started the thread is PO at Kerry because of the call to support Tammy instead of the candidate he/she prefers.

[karynnj]

15. Or because her hobby is anti-Kerry snark

whenever and whereever possible. She also appears to be for no one.

[Mass]

16. Durbin changed his vote to YES.

[whometense]

17. Interesting.

And inscrutable.

[jenndar]

9. Yeah, my heart really goes out to the Democratic Senators today.

They were pretty much robbed of the opportunity to make this a fair bill, and if they vote against it, it looks to some like they don't care about national security.