The Senate is in session this Saturday morning, although Mitch McConnell – the Senate Minority Leader – had the gall to say that voting on extending tax cuts for all Americans on the first $250,ooo-$1 million in income is a “waste of taxpayer’s money.”  As retiring Senator Byron Dorgan just said, the GOP lives in “their own reality.”

I popped in yesterday to bring you the names of the 20 Democratic members of the House who voted against extending the tax cuts for everyone on their first $250,000 of income.

I’m back this morning, watching the Senate on c-span, and bringing you the names of those who voted against the best interests of this country.  The vote, by the way, went down to defeat 53-36, with 11 not voting.

But 53 senators voted for the bill! Unfortunately, this was a vote for cloture… and because of the ridiculous filibuster rules that the Republicans have abused for the past couple of years, 60 votes were needed in order to bring it back for the real vote in which only 51 are needed for passage.

The first vote this morning was on the same bill that the House voted on yesterday… the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts on all income up to $250,000 annually.

For some reason, these Democrats (some in name only, at least one who surprised me with this vote) voted NAY:

Joe Lieberman (I-CT … yes, we know he’s not really a Democrat, but he caucuses with them)

Joe Manchin (Dino-WV)

Ben Nelson (Dino-NE)

Jim Webb (Dino-VA)

Russ Feingold (D-WI … was this a vote similar to Ron Klein’s yesterday? A screw you to the Wisconsin voters who voted against him?  I think not.  I think Russ Feingold is actually of the belief that we should let all the tax cuts expire, and I don’t necessarily disagree!)

Yesterday, incoming Speaker John Boehner had the gall to say that the idea of bringing these votes to the floor was “chicken crap”… Here are the members of the Senate who were too chicken shit to take a stand on this issue and didn’t cast a vote.  Yes, they’re all Republicans:

Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Sessions (R-AL)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)

The second vote they took raised the amount on which American citizens would get a tax cut … from $250k up to $1 million.   This vote, again, went down 53-36, with 10 not voting.  Again, more than a majority of the senate voted for it, but they didn’t get the 60 votes needed to avoid a fake filibuster.  (It’s fake because the Dems allow them to get away with the threat of a filibuster without actually making them filibuster.. but that’s a rant for another day.)

The group of five Democrats who voted NAY on this amendment differed a bit from the first.

Russ Feingold and Joe Lieberman cast their second NAY vote, this time joined by

Dick Durbin (D-IL)

Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)

Tom Harkin (D-IA)

In the No Vote column, retiring Senator George Voinovich of Ohio, decided to join with his fellow Republicans to vote NAY.

And with that, the Senators go off to have a weekend. Unbelievable.