The Myth of 60 Rides Again

by David Waldman

Wed May 13, 2009 at 01:10:05 PM PDT

The nomination of David Hayes to be Deputy Secretary of the Interior was blocked today when a cloture vote on his confirmation failed, 57-39.

I know Harry Reid has been insistent of late that the Senate get moving on pending nominations, and it's of course totally ridiculous that the chief architect of today's delay, Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT) actually finds nothing wrong with Hayes but blocked him over issues involving cancellation of oil and gas leases, but what are we to make of this vote?

We "need 60" to get this done. We got 57 on the record.

Number 58 was actually Reid himself, but he voted no for procedural reasons. (Any Senator who votes with the prevailing side can later move to reconsider that vote, so Reid ended up voting no in order to reserve the right to bring the nomination up again.)

Not voting today, though, were Senators Ted Kennedy (D-MA), John Kerry (D-MA) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD). Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) both voted for cloture.

I'm sure Kennedy, Kerry and Mikulski all had good reasons for missing the vote. For instance, Kennedy's got his health issues. Kerry, I understand, was in Massachusetts attending a service member's funeral. But had they been there, they could have been votes number 59, 60 and 61.

Now, it probably would have been a good idea to have checked in with the Democratic Caucus to see who was and wasn't going to be on hand for the vote. And it might have occurred to people to check and see if maybe Olympia Snowe would go along. Maybe not so much Jon Kyl. I don't know what the dynamics of checking in with Republicans really are.

But either way, what this points out once again is that having 60 members in the Democratic Caucus doesn't actually translate all the time into having the magical 60 votes needed to guarantee your ability to move your agenda. Lots of things can happen to get in the way of making it work. You can lose Dems. You can gain Republicans. You can have people out of DC for the day.

It seems trivial sometimes, but it shouldn't be forgotten, given how much emphasis has been put on this "magic number" for so many years.

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Tags: nominations, filibuster, cloture, David Hayes, Myth of 60 (all tags) :: Previous Tag Versions

Permalink | 6 comments

  •  I understand about Kennedy (0+ / 0-)

    but if Reid would have postponed the vote so that Kerry and Mikulski could make it, he would have been able to join them in voting aye and, voila, Hayes would have won the cloture vote by 60-38.

    The Republican Party is neither pro-republic nor pro-party. Discuss!

    by Nathaniel Ament Stone on Wed May 13, 2009 at 01:30:15 PM PDT

  •  Taking the Steak Suace on vacation? (0+ / 0-)

    I was looking for Sen. Rockefeller since he had knee surgery. Glad to see Sen. Johnson is back as his absences worried me. I had the thought before the vote that these three, meaning plus Kennedy, was the head count CNN was talking about.

    NFTT: Support My Team or I'll Dance

    by CA Berkeley WV on Wed May 13, 2009 at 01:32:46 PM PDT

  •  If Reid had 60 in his pocket, I suspect the goal- (1+ / 0-)

    Recommended by:
    sacrelicious

    post would somehow magically get moved again.  How did we devolve to where a nomination for Dep Sec of Interior, for chrissakes, gets "filibustered"?
    This is some weird combination of ineptitude and lack of seriousness.  Even
    though they'll probably be able to fix it in a day or so, at that point the Repugs will probably fold and it'll sail thru by UC; thus the only "footprint" left will be a failed vote.  
    There's some testing going on here.  It's time to raise the cost of obstruction.

    Oh, and Dawn Johnson?  The most disheartening thing Obama could do would be to fold a la Clinton/Lani Guinier.  I don't see it happening, but it's clear that Senators respect/fear power and not much else.  

    by joeff on Wed May 13, 2009 at 02:12:59 PM PDT

  •  Reid is incompetent or compromised (0+ / 0-)

    Unless I am missing some very subtle strategy here, I can't help but believe that Reid is worse than useless given his track record.

    --
    Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting

    by sacrelicious on Wed May 13, 2009 at 02:19:10 PM PDT

  •  Durbin (0+ / 0-)

    Isn't it his job to do a nose count?  Reid may be no prize, but seems like this was Durbin's fuckup.

    by Glenn in NYC on Thu May 14, 2009 at 10:27:15 AM PDT

  •  "Kennedy's got his health issues" (0+ / 0-)

    He needs to retire. If he is not healthy enough to vote, he needs to step down and let someone who is healthy enough take his place.

    Citizenship is a contact sport!

    by horowitz on Thu May 14, 2009 at 05:35:31 PM PDT

Permalink | 6 comments