SUBTERRENEAN HOMELAND BLUES

The Senate passed the Homeland Security measure by a vote of 90-9 today. Before that lopsided vote, the main sticking point had been a number of provisions in the bill which would have protected some special interests (particularly Eli Lilly and the pharmaceutical industry) from litigation etc. After an amendment to get rid of the offending pork was voted down earlier in the day, soon-to-be-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Hairspray) promised that if the bill was passed as-is, then in next year's session, the three most offending provisions would be elimintaed at that time.

As the Washington post pointed out earlier today about the amendment vote (defeated 52-47), Senator Mary Landrieu was basically being blackmailed by the Republicans into voting against the amendment. She's up for a run-off election on December 6th, and had she voted for the amendment, the GOP was basically threatening to use that vote against her to say she was stalling the bill, and thus question her "patriotism", in a way similar to how they dug up old SDI votes to question the patriotism of triple-amputee Max Cleland in Georgia.

So the questions are: 1) What's the GOP's plan B on ousting Landrieu? and 2) Will Lott keep his word once he has the reigns of power? I'm not sure, though there could be big-time political consequences (all the way to 04) if he doesn't. Or they could question the Dem's "patriotism" again, hell, it worked so well in the midterms, given how impotent the Dem's were in fighting back.