2:11 p.m. OK, we should be about ready to get going here. We’ve been told there will only be about 15 minutes of debate on this before a vote takes place to prevent a filibuster — as you all know by now, we need 60 for the bill to move forward. I’ll be posting updates as things get going, and Martin may pop in with his two cents if he can, so stay with us if you don’t have access to CSPAN-2 where you are — Sen. Hillary Clinton is currently presenting her health care plan on the channel, so, hopefully she’s almost done.
2:15: Sen. Joseph Lieberman is introducing the voting rights bill. He’s stressing the bi-partisan nature of the solution offered by this bill, giving a vote to D.C. and another to Utah. He’s calling for an end to the national embarrassment of the District not having voting representation.
2:20: Utah’s Sen. Orrin Hatch is giving a pretty emotional speech about the 600,000 residents of the District who should be represented by a member of Congress. He said: “My God, when has the United States Senate been afraid to debate a constitutional issue as important as this one?” He points out that supporters of the bill such as himself are prepared to accept whatever the Supreme Court might eventually decide, but they’re not afraid to take it to them. Orrin really seems fired up about this!
2:26 p.m. Little quorum call interlude. Nice music, CSPAN-2! Now Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is speaking, and suggesting letting this important principle move forward at this time, no matter what you might think about its constitutionality. She’s just so reasonable. How can you argue with that?
Voting is about to start. We can see Eleanor Holmes Norton walking around in the back as voting takes place.
2:39 p.m.: It appears Sen. John Warner of Virginia voted against bringing the measure to the floor. We’re still waiting for the final tally, but getting the shaft from our neighbor to the south really stinks.
2:49: Still tallying, but a number of other moderate Republicans have since voted nay, including Sen. Chuck Hagel and Sen. Lisa Murkowski. What does Mitch McConnell have on you people?
2:53: Yeas are 57, and Nays are 42. This is, obviously, not good news. We needed 60 yeas to avoid a filibuster, which Sen. McConnell seems fairly eager to go forward with. We’ll have more on what this means for the future of the legislation in just a bit.
Photo by Duncan Brook
