Harry Reid on Employee Free Choice:

Reid declined to speculate as to when the controversial, union-backed “card-check” legislation will pass the upper chamber. Yet he said the bill is important to him and Obama.

“The union movement was hurt very, very badly in the Bush administration, and we are going to reverse that.”

Reid said he is interested in working with Republicans on card-check.

“But remember,” Reid said with a smile, “we think we only need two Republican votes.”

Not sure where he's getting "two votes," I'm assuming he means because the Illinois seat is still vacant. But even if that's true, it means he thinks that Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor aren't really in doubt.

Pat Toomey is trying to use it as an issue and come at Specter from the right in Pennsylvania:

The Employee Free Choice Act is likely going to be a difficult vote for Specter, who remains popular with unions, but also has to be concerned about angering a conservative base that nearly unseated him four years ago.

Specter has said he supports ending the filibuster on the bill but has not decided whether he supports the bill itself.

That's fine, Arlen, that's all we need. Just like Lieberman and Chafee on Alito, all we need is a cloture vote. We're fine with a speech about how the issue needs to be debated on the floor of the Senate and deserves an up-or-down vote. Then feel free to work yourself up into a fit of gravitas and vote against it.

We'll see if Republicans in Pennsylvania are as fucking stupid as Planned Parenthood and NARAL think their members are.

The arsenal of the GOP is seriously depleted over this one. NAM and the Chamber shot their wad during the election, pissing off Ben Nelson and probably securing a cloture vote for the "pro" side. And one of their biggest check writers, Sheldon Adelson (who called employee Free Choice"one of the fundamental threats to society," the other being radical Islam) is having a bit of a cash flow problem.

With Voinovich and Specter both vulnerable and up for reelection in 2010 in union-heavy states, those "final vote" deals may not be hard to come by.