DUDE, you're getting a START Treaty too!!!

[Change Happens]

The WH should try to save some of this good news for next year?

Snip

The significant part of that statement from Brown is that he will vote for cloture, freeing up other Republicans to allow the bill to move forward. While it appears that there are plenty of Republicans willing to vote for final passage, getting past the cloture vote and to the final vote could still theoretically be a barrier. Brown's statement makes that less likely. The GOP Senators, in addition to Brown, who are likely to support ratification are Isakson, Gregg, Voinovich, Corker, Cochran, Bennett, Snowe, Collins, and Lugar. Various combinations of those Republicans (in addition to Alexander and Murkowski) voted with Democrats today to vote down a series of Republican amendments to the treaty, which is good news for ratification.

In other good news, Sen. Ron Wyden is recovering from successful surgery for prostate cancer, and should be discharged from the hospital tomorrow. If the vote on ratification moves forward as now anticipated on Wednesday, his presence likely wouldn't be necessary--ratification requires a two-thirds majority of those Senators voting, not of the full Senate

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/134551-gop-senators-concede-start-will-win-enough-votes-to-pass-handing-victory-to-obama

[Kdillard]

1. Seriously President Obama should go on vacation very happy.

[Change Happens]

2. An awesome year overall...Extremely productive!

[polmaven]

3. Looks like Scott Brown

has realized he is up for re-election in 2 years, and has to stop POing liberal MA voters. Notice how these epiphanies started very soon after 11/2, when all of the Dem reps were re-elected and Repubs were soundly rebuffed?

[jenmito]

4. K&R! I remember after HCR passed, the consensus among the punditries was

that Obama has already cemented his place in history-that there can no longer be comparisons to Jimmy Carter. I also remember SNL doing a skit showing how Obama hasn't accomplished anything on his list of promises. That has changed. I can't BELIEVE how much he has accomplished in his first 2 years! And in the lame duck session for the big-ticket items? :woohoo:

[Parker CA]

5. Kick and Rec!

[unblock]

6. i can't remember a more productive lame duck session.

rather surprising, actually. i thought republicans would have run out the clock easily. the tax cut deal was very good for them, of course, but the rest, not so much. and in that context, it makes the tax cut deal look more like an obama victory than it was.

[bigwillq]

7. Why can't it be like this all the time?!?

:P Yes, the Congress has passed several good things this year. But both the overall tone and performance coming from both Congress and the White House has been very impressive in recent weeks since the election. I'm very pleased. Maybe they work better under pressure, who knows?! Surprising, indeed. I wish the tone was like this for the other 11 months of this year.


on edit: I guess this is what happens when people lose their jobs and when folks know the majority is lost in one chamber come Jan. Which is why most politicians are scum, because they can pass good things when they really want to without making it political or playing politics.
I am happy, however, with some of the things they passed this lame duck session no matter the way in which they did it.

[OhioBlue]

8. k&r!! n/t