Can we get the Employee Free Choice Act passed without 60 seats in the Senate?

[dhpgetsit]

The Employee Free Choice Act was blocked in the Senate by a filibuster. Corporations are spending millions to defeat it. Can we please inform our Senate that this is an important step toward restoring the middle class and jump-starting the economy from the bottom up?

[catgirl]

1. Yes

A powerful democratic Senate will have stronger leverage to convince a few republicans
to vote with them.

[Omaha Steve]

2. Yes

I'm sure a couple of R's up for re-election at mid term will be thinking about getting re-elected.

[Juche]

5. I hope so

If the dems pick up another senate seat out of the 3 that are too close they'll have 58. Arlen Specter voted for cloture when the bill came up in the senate, so if the dems can count on him that'll give them 59. That means one more senator.

These are the states with GOP senators up in 2010.



Some are in states that moved pretty far to the left in 2008. Hopefully they can be intimidated. If not, hopefully they can be removed.

[WiMu]

3. Yes

Now that there will be less Republicans in the Congress, they will need to give the Democrats what they want, to be able to get some Democrats to vote with them, so they can pass bills that they want.

[madrchsod]

4. it may go back to the way the senate used to get things done.

a lot depends on what the democrats offer the republicans for their votes...

[Earth Bound Misfit]

6. Perhaps the "Ladies from Maine" can be persuaded?

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002983584

Sen. Collins: Finding Power in the Middle
By Katherine Rizzo, CQ Staff
From Political Perceptions, wsj.com

Let’s hear it – just one more time – for the margin of error.

But not exactly the same one that has crept into our casual speech since the start of our political season two years ago. This margin of error is the one by which the Senate will abide for at least the next couple of years.

The margin has a name: Susan Collins , a Republican who has just survived a well-funded election challenge from Rep. Tom Allen , her Democratic opponent.

And the error rests with whichever Senate leader who fails to win her support. Among the Republicans re-elected this week, she is the true swing vote – the one that means the difference between a bill that moves well across the Senate floor and a bill that stumbles around with a foot stuck in one of the spittoons that decorate the place.

The cautious, deliberative Ms. Collins has power because of her ability to say “no” to the people she eats lunch with every Tuesday -- her own fellow Republicans.

Last year, they found they could count on Ms. Collins for only half of the “party unity” votes – votes in which a majority of Republicans and a majority of Democrats line up against each other. Even when the Republicans set the agenda, Ms. Collins never stuck with her party more than 78% of the time – her rating on party unity votes during her most partisan years, 2003 and 2004.


‘The Ladies From Maine’

Ms. Collins and the other senator from her state, Republican Olympia J. Snowe , go their own, moderate way so often that when GOP leaders are quizzed about being able to filibuster a bill, they tend to walk through the math by explaining how many votes they expect from core Republicans and what they expect from “the ladies from Maine.”

With Democrats tantalizingly close to the 60 votes they need to cut off filibusters, a lot of what happens in the next two years will depend on two things: the ability of Democrats to keep the majority together, and the willingness of Republican moderates to defect on crucial issues.

--snip--

With a genuine swing vote in play, Republicans will know that if they frame their arguments well enough or draft their amendments just so, they have a chance to swing Ms. Collins and other moderates their way. And Democrats know that they have to tailor their versions to get the blessing of moderates.

--snip--

How Sens. Collins and Snowe and fellow outcasts from their party’s conservative wing behave will help determine President-elect Barack Obama ’s success in moving his agenda through Congress.

So Ms. Collins truly does have an outsized dose of power.

Read more at link