Senate Democrats Wednesday suffered a procedural defeat in trying to move toward a final vote on landmark financial reform legislation, failing to overcoming Republican opposition.Roll Call gets the headline right: Senate Democrats Fail to End Debate on Wall Street Bill:
The Senate rejected a cloture vote—57-42—denying Democrats a chance to limit further debate to 30 hours before holding a final vote on whether to approve the complex legislation.
The Democrats needed 60 votes to avoid the possibility of a filibuster. They control 58 seats and can usually count on the support of independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Democrats Maria Cantwell of Washington and Russell Feingold of Wisconsin both voted no, which might help explain why the vote was postponed from its original time of 2 p.m. to allow for one more caucus meeting.
Maine's two Republican senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, voted in favor of cloture.
Senate Democrats defeated a procedural motion to their own financial reform bill Wednesday as Members continued debating time agreements over a handful of amendments.Both stories seem to be leaving something out. If the Democrats control 59 votes and Arlen Specter was absent (recovering from his career-ending finish in yesterday's Pennsylvania Senate primary), leaving 58, and they lost two Dems and gained the Maine sisters, the yea vote count should have been 58. But it was 57. Either another Democrat voted no or they failed to get the support of Mr. Sanders from Vermont. I'll post the answer when the roll call vote is posted.
In any case, I proud of the Republicans that voted no on what Senator Jim DeMint called the worst Senate bill in history.
Update: Mea culpa. I forgot that Harry Reid would vote no if his vote would not change the outcome. It's a procedural thing which allows him to bring up the motion again.
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