FMA Status

The Senate just voted down a motion for cloture 48-50, meaning that Santorum and his far right cronys will be able to filibuster. Since it's looking more and more like they are heading for a humiliating defeat this afternoon, they probably will. More as the situation progresses.

Update: I misunderstood the significance of the afore-mentioned vote. Because the motion was shot down, debate will continue. For years. Essentially the senate voted down the amendment itself. Hooray!

Update 2: After further wikipedia perusal I now understand what I got wrong. Basically, in motioning for cloture, the Santorumites were moving to force a vote. The people who could have filibustered would actually be the democrats, in a move to prevent the vote taking place. But they would only do that if they didn't have the votes to shoot the amendment down, which they overwhelmingly did. Several key republican senators who disagreed with the amendment on federalist principals (notably John McCain) voted for cloture anyway because they knew they were going down 48-50 and it was better for the party to lose the motion for cloture than to lose 36 - 64 on an actual amendment vote.