Sen. Reid says that

Sen. Reid says that Senate Faction is no more?

Key passages from the early afternoon update from CQ Today that has the Hill atwitter …

Not a single Senate Democrat will support President Bush’s proposal to divert a portion of the Social Security payroll tax to personal investment accounts, Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday.

If he is right, Bush’s plan will be dead on arrival in the Senate, where a supermajority of 60 votes will be needed to overcome a filibuster by opponents. Republicans have 55 seats.

…

“We want to make sure that the American people understand that we’re not for benefit cuts and we’re not for privatization,” Reid said. “There’s no crisis in Social Security.”

…

Reid said he had private commitments from all 44 Senate Democrats that they would not support diverting payroll tax revenues into private accounts, the key facet of Bush’s plan. The Democratic staff on the Senate Finance Committee has come to the same conclusion, based on polling Democratic members and their staffs.

Some Senate Democrats, including Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana and Ben Nelson of Nebraska, have said publicly they are open to considering a Social Security overhaul, including personal accounts, though they have not committed themselves either way. But “add-on” personal accounts, which a number of Republicans also favor, would supplement Social Security benefits and would not draw from payroll tax revenues for financing — keeping these senators within their pledges to Reid.

When you add in the Loud and Proud <$NoAd$> Snowe and Specter, plus the almost-sure-to-defect Chafee, 50 votes in the Senate looks like a challenge in itself …