Sen. Manchin (D-WV) apologizes for missing DADT and Dream Act votes.
The Senate just voted to break the GOP filibuster of the START Treaty, with a critical 67 votes. That suggests, though nothing is ever guaranteed in the Senate, that the treaty should muster the 2/3 required for passage.
This won’t come as a surprise to those familiar with the history of the late Jim Crow Era or the White Citizens Council movement. But as author John Dittmer explains, the decision of the Yazoo City Citizens Council to try to keep out the KKK wasn’t a matter of disagreeing with their objectives. They just thought their methods would be more effective in preserving Jim Crow and that it was better to have White Supremacist forces concentrated in a single organization. As the Yazoo City Citizens Council explained in reference to the Klan, “your Citizens’ Council was formed to preserve separation of the races, and believes that it can best serve the county where it is the only organization operating in this field.” Read More
Sen. Corker (R) announces his support for the START treaty, apparently giving the White House the votes necessary for passage.
Barbour does u-turn, calls Citizens Council “indefensible.”
Isakson (R) and Bennett (R) announce support for START Treaty.
Through a FOIA request, TPM has obtained new photos and the preliminary government reports on the crash that killed Sen. Ted Stevens (R). Read the report here.
It hasn’t gotten much play over the last few weeks since there’s been so much actual legislation going on. But there’s some really weird stuff going on at the House Ethics Committee over the last month — including attempted firings of key investigators, the Republican ranking member apparently calling in the Sargent at Arms to lock down the committees offices and now the chief counsel stepping down. Our Ryan Reilly brings us up to date on the whole story. We’ll be hearing more about this.
President Obama will sign the DADT repeal bill at 9:15 AM Wednesday morning.