If you missed Ezra Klein’s piece over the weekend recounting the Obama Administration’s early responses to the financial crisis and resultant economic collapse, give it a read.

It’s an important marker as the history of that pivotal time in late 2008 and early 2009 begins to be written.

When the Senate votes on the President Obama’s jobs bill this evening, probably sometime after 5:30 ET, pay close attention to how many Democratic senators defect. Republicans plan to filibuster the bill, and it is unlikely to get the 60 votes necessary to move it forward. So we know going in that this bill isn’t going to pass. But how many Dems line up to support it — or more importantly how many fail to line up — will be the difference between whether Democrats come out of the vote with a clear political message or a muddied result where both sides share the blame for not doing anything.