No Runny Eggs

Shoebox wrote back in the immediate wake of the November election that there was no difference between 57 Democrats in the Senate and 60. Something that John Hawkins tweeted today reminded me of that: “The GOP’s leadership in the Senate is utterly failing. They haven’t stopped ANYTHING yet and Lamar Alexander voted for the Omnibus bill.”

I have decided to run with that and see just how big a failure that has been. The Senate has taken 96 votes in this session of Congress. There were 14 votes on items supported by the Democratic leadership (majority leader Harry Reid, majority whip Dick Durbin, vice chair Chuck Schumer and secretary Patty Murray) that required a 3/5ths majority, and thus could theoretically been stopped by the Republicans. Depending on the day, they needed not only their entire caucus that was present, but also between 2 and 8 “Republicans”. Let’s review the record:

• Floor vote #1 and floor vote #2 on the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, which among other things proposed locking up 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 331 million barrels of recoverable oil in Wyoming) – John Barrasso (WY), Michael Bennett (CO), Thad Cochran (MS), Susan Collins (ME), Mike Crapo (ID), Michael Enzi (WY), Orrin Hatch (UT), Richard Lugar (IN), Lisa Murkowski (AK), James Risch (ID), Olympia Snowe (ME) and Roger Wicker (MS) joined all the present Dems (excepting the absent Joe Biden, Sherrod Brown and Ted Kennedy) on the vote to exceed the 59 votes necessary to proceed to that as the Senate’s top priority (vote #1), while Kit Bond (MO) and Lindsey Graham (SC) joined the aforementioned “Republicans” and all the present Dems (Biden, Brown, Kennedy, Kent Conrad and Debbie Stabenow weren’t present) to exceed the 59 votes necessary to invoke cloture (vote #2). While it did pass the Senate, it is languishing in the House.
• Floor vote #4 and floor vote #14 (Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which allows the perpetually-aggrieved to wait until 6 months after they leave a job instead of waiting 6 months after “discrimination” to sue) – Lamar Alexander (TN), Bennett, Bond, Richard Burr (NC), Collins, Bob Corker (TN), Chuck Grassley (IA), Judd Gregg (NH), Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX), Mel Martinez (FL), John McCain (AZ), Mitch McConnell (KY), Murkowski, Snowe, Arlen Specter (PA) and Wicker joined all the present Dems (Brown and Kennedy were absent) to exceed the 59 votes necessary to proceed (vote #4), while Collins, Hutchison, Murkowski, Snowe and Specter joined all the present Dems (Kennedy was absent) to exceed the 59 votes necessary to pass the bill (vote #14), which is now law.
• Floor vote #33 (an attempt to waive the Budget Act with respect to an attempt by Murray to acquire some pork in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, aka Porkulus) – Bond and Specter joined all the present Dems (again, Kennedy was absent) except Mary Landrieu in a failed attempt to make that happen; they fell 2 votes short of the 60 votes necessary. Of note, this was the only victory against the Dem machine, but only because Kennedy was absent and Reid suffered a rare defection from his caucus.
• Floor vote #35 (an attempt to waive the Budget Act with respect to a Barbara Mikulski/Sam Brownback amendment to Porkulus that allows the deduction of interest, state sales tax and state excise tax paid by certain taxpayers on the purchase of a car/light truck bought between November 13, 2008 and December 31, 2009) – Most of the Republicans joined most of the Democrats on this 60-vote-majority one; the amendment was subsequently agreed to by a voice vote. Of note, more Democrats than Republicans opposed it (17-9); that and the nature of the amendment means that I am not counting this against the Republicans. The interest portion was subsequently stripped out, but the taxes deductions survived.
• Floor vote #55 (an attempt to waive the Budget Act with respect to an amendment to Porkulus to greatly expand the tax deductibility of plug-in electric vehicles) – Alexander, Bennett, Bond, Sam Brownback (KS), Burr, Saxby Chambliss (GA), Collins, Corker, Crapo, John Ensign (NV), Graham, Hatch, Johnny Isakson (GA), Lugar, Martinez, McCain, Murkowski, Risch, Pat Roberts (KS), Snowe, Specter, John Thune (SD) and George Voinovich (OH) joined all present Democrats (Kennedy absent) to exceed the 60 votes required to waive the Budget Act; the amendment was subsequently agreed to by a voice vote. It appears most of this was subsequently scaled back.
• Floor vote #59 and floor vote #60 (an attempt to substitute the Collins/Nelson/Reid rewrite of Porkulus) – Collins, Snowe and Specter joined all the Dems (yes, they even brought in Kennedy this time) to exceed the 60 votes required to invoke cloture on (vote #59) and waive the rules for (vote #60) that particular version of Porkulus for the one already on the floor. The subsequent vote to pass was a simple majority, and that was modified in conference.
• Floor vote #63 and floor vote #64 (final adoption of Porkulus) – Collins, Snowe and Specter joined all the Dems (Kennedy was back to being absent) to get to the 60 votes required to waive the rules (vote #63) and pass (vote #64) the final version of Porkulus. Had just one of the three not bolted, we wouldn’t have had Porkulus.
• Floor vote #65 and floor vote #73 (the DC House Voting Rights Act of 2009) – Cochran, Collins, Hatch, Lugar, Murkowski, Snowe, Specter and Voinovich joined all the Dems present (Kennedy and Tom Harkin were absent) except Max Baucus and Robert Byrd to exceed the 60 votes required to proceed (vote #65), while Collins, Hatch, Lugar, Snowe, Specter and Voinovich joined all the Dems present (Kennedy was again not present) except Baucus and Byrd to exceed the 60 votes required to pass the bill (vote #73). The bill is currently stalled in the House.
• Floor vote #96 (passage of the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009) – Alexander, Bond, Cochran, Murkowski, Richard Shelby (AL), Snowe, Specter and Wicker joined all the Dems present (Kennedy absent again) except Evan Bayh, Russ Feingold and Claire McCaskill to exceed the 60 votes required to pass the pork-laden Omnibus bill signed in secret by Obama.

As stated above, I consider one of the votes (vote 35) a bipartisan measure. Another 3 votes were essentially purely procedural (votes 1, 4 and 65). That leaves 10 meaningful places the “Republicans” could have stopped the Dingy One. 9 times, they failed.

So, who were the big failures? Specter and Snowe lead the pack at 9, but I give the edge to Specter for his attempt to make the total failure rate 100%. Collins isn’t too far behind at 8. Bond and Murkowski each bolted 4 times. Hatch and Lugar departed 3 times apiece. Alexander, who is supposed to be one of the “leaders”, was among the multiple offenders. In all, 29 of the 41 members caved at least once on a critical vote, and only 9 didn’t cave at all.