The amnesty bill did get cloture with 5 votes to spare. Next will be a spate of 20 pre-approved amendments followed by another cloture vote. It's still very up in the air, as some of the senators voted "aye" in exchange for a promise that their amendment would get a vote. It's safe to say that when those amendments get voted down, the ayes will be much smaller.

The full voting list is here. Some highlights:

GOP presidential candidate Sam Brownback was a surprise aye. Probably won't make much of a difference to his single-digit campaign though.

Freshman Senator James Webb (D-Va.) also voted aye and may break his campaign pledge. Surprise, surprise. Other Democratic freshman like Claire McCaskill and Jon Tester voted "no."

Georgia senator Saxby Chambliss voted aye. That's a surprise to me. Other notable Republicans voting Aye were minority leader Mitch McConnell, and conservative GOP members Norm Coleman of Minnesota, John Ensign of Nevada, and Warner of Virginia.

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both voted aye.

Other Democrats voting against came from rural and southern states, like Montana, Lousiana, West Virginia, North Dakota, with one interesting exception, Debbie Stabenow from Michigan. Democrat doubts with this bill are well-represented in this mix.

Senator Jim Webb's assistant was arrested for carrying a loaded, unregistered weapon into the Russell Senate Office Building today:

Kimberly Schneider, a spokeswoman for the police, said the aide worked for Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va. He entered the building at 10:50 a.m., she said, and was in possession of an unregistered firearm.

The aide also had two additional loaded clips according to the accompanying video. Drudge is reporting that his sources say it was the senator's gun and the aide was holding it for him. The DC Examiner has more:

The aide was dispatched to the Virginia Democrat's car to retrieve a bag, the source said. When the aide passed the bag through the scanners of the Russell Senate Office Building, police discovered a loaded handgun and two loaded magazines, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

This brings up a few questions: why would the Senator (or his aide) carry a gun to his office? Second, why did he have more additional clips than Jack Bauer carries?

Two books currently climbing the Amazon rankings are making big waves in the political pond. I'm not speaking of the latest offerings from Bill O'Reily or Bob Woodward. No, the one's I'm referring to don't rely on out-dated analysis or pompous self-promotion to entice buyers. Word on the street (or on cable news networks) is that these books go for the good stuff--rollicking lesbian affairs, and an incestuous moment between a boy and his father. Of course, the esteemed authors I'm speaking of are none other than Lynne Cheney, wife of Dick, and James Webb, the guy who's running for Virginia Senate.

Sisters was written twenty-five years ago, and will, for some strange reason, cost you upwards of $700 for the dog-eared paperback. A quick sampling of editorial reviews turned up the following:

From a person identified as, "Leaves you panting for more!"
"The kind of eroticism you just don't expect from the Second Lady of the United States... ...Ms. Cheney details the commune's daily 'massage classes' and their predictable free-for-all aftermaths..."

And "P. Hansen" raves:
"Even though Lynne said today on CNN that there was no lesbian story, I beg to differ! This is hot and steamy frontier lovin'!"

Webb's book, The Lost Soldiers, on the other hand, seems to not have all that much to do with sex, after all. Maybe that explains why you can pick it up for a mere $6.48. There are plenty of long-winded reader reviews from people who seem concerned with the horrors of war and accurate depictions of what we wrought in Viet Nam, but none of them mentions a boy putting his penis in his father's mouth.

So the question of the day is this. If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring one of these two page-turners, which would it be?

According to Jim Webb's official web site, he became the first Naval Academy graduate in history to serve in the military and later be appointed Secretary to the Navy (in 1987). He resigned as Naval Secretary in 1988 after refusing to agree to a reduction of the Navy's force structure during congressionally-mandated budget cutting.

Personally, I think we have more than enough politicians who are willing to ignore their professed values and beliefs in order to get into and hold office. I've always wondered how someone who says they are adamantly pro-life under any and all circumstances could want a job in which they would have to enforce pro-choice laws -- and they say, "No problem." It seems to me that it would have to be a significant problem if one truly held that belief/value to heart. Therefore, either it isn't that strong of a value or they wouldn't work to uphold the law. How could they if they had integrity.

If Mr. Webb resigned because he refused to enforce a congressionally-mandated reduction in force, I call that integrity.

As a resident of California, where our Senate race is a gimme (Democrat Feinstein), it's been fun to follow the other key races as an outsider who can't affect the outcome. One of the more interesting sources I have found is The Fix by Chris Cillizza.

Every Friday he blogs for the Washington Post and addresses all sorts of politically relevant issues. This week he wrote about key House races, but last week it was the key Senate Races. According to The Fix, those races (as of a week ago), show the Senate landscape shifting towards the Democrats. His analysis is as follows:

• Washington - Republican Mike McGavick's "free-fall" following his mishandling of a past drunk driving arrest had ended, but the damage was done. Two recent polls showed Democrat Maria Cantwell leading McGavick by 9 and 10 points.
• Maryland - Republican Michael Steele continued to impress with his unorthodox ad campaign, but his central problem is his stance as a long-time supporter of George W. Bush. Polling showed the democratic candidate, Ben Cardin, with a mid single digit lead. Steele's chances hinge on an improvement in the national political climate, a change seen as increasingly unlikely.
• Virginia - A new Mason-Dixon poll showed Republican George Allen and Democrat James Webb tied at 43 percent -- a stunning reversal for Mr. Allen, who started the year running for president in 2008. A key to the outcome may be whether the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee or the National Republican Senatorial Committee weighs in with television ads between now and November 7th.