Reply #37: Reid only had control of 48 votes, he needed 12 repubs to come over to pass this

[MiniMe]

Reid currently has 48 dems since Obama resigned his seat, plus 2 independents. That is 50 senators, not exactly a big majority. Kennedy is still out ill, Kerry is overseas at the global warming conference, so for this vote he had a total of 48 if all the dems voted Yes, 46 dems and 2 independents. That means even if every dem voted yes, 12 repubs would have had to vote yes also to get to 60. The big majority won't come until January.

I don't know why the Montana Senators voted No, you would have to ask them. And I don't know why Blance Lincoln did either. We are democrats because we don't think that everybody in the party has to be in lockstep with everybody else, that is why you want more than a razor thin majority.

I'm not saying that I like Reid in the leadership position, I do wish it was somebody else. But in this case, he didn't control enough votes.