The Missing Senators

We're supposed to have 100 members in the U.S. Senate, but for the last 15 months there hasn't been even one occassion when all 100 were present for a vote:

The weeks ahead were supposed to mark the moment in which President Obama used a filibuster-proof, 60-vote majority to push some of the most ambitious items on his agenda through the Senate, brushing aside GOP opposition as little more than a distraction.

But instead, even with the Minnesota Supreme Court on the verge of settling that state's seemingly endless disputed Senate race, which would finally provide a 100th senator, the chamber's leaders are having to contend with the prolonged absence of two of the most senior and famed members as key summer votes approach.

Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), 91, has been ensconced in an undisclosed hospital since May 15, initially for a minor infection, but then for a more serious staph infection. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), 77, who was diagnosed with brain cancer a year ago, did not return to the Senate last week despite proclamations from colleagues just last month that he would be back in time to lead this summer's health-care debate.

It's been 15 months since all 100 senators have come to the floor of the chamber for a vote. Early last year, that was because the presidential campaign stole the attention of Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and other senators seeking the White House. Neither Byrd's nor Kennedy's office has said when they will return, and yesterday Byrd's office announced that he would not be resuming his duties this week.

I have my doubts that Byrd or Kennedy will be back, unless they wheel Kennedy in for a health care vote of some type. At 91 and with extensive health problems, Robert Byrd may well have cast his last vote.

When you combine those two with the ongoing battle in Minnesota the Democrats are left down three of the people they were counting on to reach their filibuster-proof majority. There's a good possibility that two others, Dodd and Reid, may get the boot next year, Burris has scandals-a-plenty, and the two Hawaiian Democrats are ancient warriors, so the hopes of a 60-vote majority for any length of time are pretty slim.