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Let's dance.

By Moe Lane Posted in Congress | FISA | There's Something Happening Here — Comments (13) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

[UPDATE: 5:51 PM] One last one. Durbin's giving Reid's final whine. Oh, and Dick?
We'll take it. And you're going to give it to us. And we think that it's a marvelous start to the 2008 Congressional session.
See you Monday...

[UPDATE: 5:47 PM] This is probably the last update: if I understand it correctly, Harry Reid agreed to let a regular cloture vote take place on Monday - I guess that means that he was just posturing here - in exchange for... nothing in particular, really. And we fade as Cantwell talks to an emptying room. Now there's a metaphor for you...

[UPDATE: 5:44 PM] Yeah, good for the cover, Cantwell, now shut up so that Reid can get his cloture motion done. Thanks a bunch.

[UPDATE: 5:42 PM] And now we're dealing with the stimulus package, while Harry Reid recovers from his noble attempt to do political things on his own. Next time, they should just play the Jeopardy! theme.

[UPDATE: 5:34 PM] Hey, it's Mitch! Kill, Mitch.

[UPDATE: 5:28 PM] SENATOR FEINSTEIN! Take up the Sacred Sword of Legislation and challenge Senator Reid for the Majority Leadership! It is your destiny! This bitter little man is embarrassing me, and I'm not even part of your party.

[UPDATE: 5:23 PM] Yeah, yeah Harry, Cheney gave a speech, Bush gave a statement, you're in love with the Constitution. We get it... wait a second. Are you actually begging us, hat in hand, to let up? Sweet Jeebus, did Mitch McConnell lobotomize you?
Stop. Whining.

[UPDATE: 5:04 PM] I come back to Teddy Kennedy. Almost enough to persuade me to leave again.

[UPDATE: 4:31 PM] Wife's home, dinner's ready (Chicken Parmesan], and we all know how this is ending, anyway. Catch you later.

[UPDATE: 4:18 PM] Whitehouse isn't happy with Bond not letting him have his amendment discussed.

[UPDATE: 4:00 PM] Now we've got Wyden up. I'm sure that he's a nice guy, but ehh.

[UPDATE: 3:41 PM] We're back, and Feingold sounds unhappy. Aw, don't vote angry, Senator. Annnnnd we're back to the classical music.

[UPDATE: 3:18 PM] I have to get dinner ready. Fortunately, we're tracking the Senate, so I might finish that before the classical music indicating nothing's-going-on stops. I'll re-sticky once something actually happens that I'm there to see.

[UPDATE: 3:03 PM] Oh, come on, Bond, just have them read the blessed thing in the record and be done with it. Ah, here comes Feingold.

[UPDATE: 2:43 PM] Here comes Rockefeller, which should kill the next half hour. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

[UPDATE: 2:37 PM] In case you were wondering, nope, Obama and Clinton are apparently not actually there. I have no idea if McCain is.

[UPDATE 2:32 PM] 60-34 for tabling; Reid is doing... something involving the consideration of amendments. Whatever it is, Feingold isn't happy about it; he's letting Rockefeller and Bond talk while he discusses matters with Reid.

This is all via this, by the way.

[Update, 2:21 PM]: They've voted on tabling the Judiciary version of the bill (the one without retroactive immunity). No count from C-SPAN, but by ear I think that it's getting tabled.

If you've been following along (for a refresher, see here and here, with many an amusing reaction here (H/T Protein Wisdom)) on the FISA showdown, here's the word on how it all goes down this afternoon. Paul Kiel of TPMmuckraker could have spinned it worse:

The first vote today will be on the Senate Judiciary Committee's version of the surveillance legislation, which contains no retroactive immunity for the telecoms who collaborated with the administration's warrantless wiretapping program. That will be at two o'clock this afternoon. There is no agreement that such a vote meet a 60-vote threshold, so when the Republicans move to block that bill, the vote will be held on a 50-vote threshold. If they win that vote, then the bill will revert back to the Senate intelligence committee's bill, which has a retroactive immunity provision.

After that will come a number of amendments, among them Sens. Chris Dodd's (D-CT) and Russ Feingold's (D-WI), which contains a provision to strip the immunity from the bill. Reid says that he supports such a bill. And he said today that Republicans will have to actually filibuster if they want to stop any of the amendments from getting a simple majority vote:

...Kiel followed this with Harry Reid's statement (full copy here). I suggest reading it very, very carefully; and noting what's absent.