Only a few Republican senators have to worry about Democrats forcing them to make tough votes before the election

McConnell, strangely enough, is the Senate Minority Leader but also sits on the Appropriations Committee. I guess he doesn’t want to stop the gravy train.

After two days of trying and failing to pass a short-term extension of the surface transportation bill, Republicans will now use the regular process to try to force their extension through, with just days to go before a shutdown of federal transportation funding.

It’s unusual when the Senate passes one bill in a single day, but today they’ve passed two. And both are an indication of the seriousness of legislating in the modern age.

The Senate plan for the JOBS Act today, a financial deregulation bill that would weaken investor protections with no economic benefit, was for three cloture votes – an amendment to add investor protections to the bill, an amendment to attach a reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank to the bill, and, if those failed, a cloture vote on the bill itself.

It looks like Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans have backed down on their obstruction of judicial confirmations. But it’s a little unclear; what we know is that McConnell and Harry Reid reached a deal that will allow the judges to get a vote. However, the JOBS Act, the financial market IPO deregulation bill which McConnell sought prior to the judicial issues, will get a vote first, and it’s not clear all the GOP Senators are on board.

On an idle whim, wondering what the Pampered Princes of the Potomac, otherwise known as US Senators, were having for lunch in their exclusive dining room, I looked up the menu.

It’s easy to imagine the setting, clubby with attentive staff, and a table of the ultra-privileged starting off with some lovely Seared Sea Scallops over Broccoli Rabe, with Truffle Butter – $12.00.

The Justice Department complaint has been public since last August, and Snowe has been dinged for it locally in Maine. The fact that Snowe and her husband may have personally benefited from the ripoff of low-income college students hasn’t really entered the conversation. But often the cover story isn’t the real story. Maybe this is one of those times.

The Senate voted to table the Blunt amendment today, but several Democrats crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans and for an amendment that would give employers effective control over the medical procedures their employees could access.

Harry Reid has scheduled a vote on the Blunt amendment, which would allow employers to refuse insurance mandates on virtually any medical service simply by stating a moral objection to the practice, for tomorrow. Reid actually introduced the amendment himself when the Republicans wouldn’t.