Bending the Third Rail
Because We Should, We Can, We Do
Friday, September 29, 2006
No Filibuster For You
Well, now we know the reason why they didn't filibuster the "Bush Torture and Get Out of Jail Free Bill":
The vote was 65-34. Twelve Democrats voted for the measure: Tom Carper, Tim Johnson, Mary Landrieu, Frank Lautenberg, Joe Lieberman, Robert Menendez, Ben Nelson, Bill Nelson, Mark Pryor, Jay Rockefeller, Ken Salazar and Debbie Stabenow. One Republican, Lincoln Chafee, voted no.
It takes forty votes to sustain a filibuster.

No real surprises in the vote I guess with a lot of CYA'ing going on. I'm not sure that an attempted filibuster wouldn't have been useful, but Reid made the calculus that it was better to have the amendments proposed ... and voted down by the Republicans ... than to try a filibuster without debate/votes on various reasonable amendments.

The entire event is shameful. On to the courts now to see just how far into to pit they've fallen.