Jane Hamsher mentions her name.

At the 4:40 moment, he should have started "I Could be but..."

The Fix blogged a bit on this a few weeks ago:

Moments ago, the Senate voted by a 60 to 39 margin to invoke cloture to bring healthcare reform legislation to the floor. The outcome of the vote was expected, yet monumental. More procedural hurdles remain, and the leadership still must round up 60 votes in favor of reform (not just the 60 votes to bring the legislation to the floor). But there's no getting around the fact that tonight's vote was an historic moment in this country.

Update [2009-11-21 20:20 EST by Nathan Empsall]: The roll call isn't up on senate.gov yet, but according to The Hill, the one missing vote (39 nay instead of 40) was the "moderate" and retiring Republican George Voinovich of Ohio, who was absent.

I don't know if this is really really big news or if it's just DC's game of lowering expectations to soften a loss and boost a win, but either way, it's big news. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said today that Democrats almost assuredly have the votes to pass health care reform - and I mean actual passage, not just debate.

From The Hill:

Speaking at an afternoon press conference four hours before an 8 p.m. procedural vote that would bring the bill to the Senate floor, McConnell said Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) appears to have the necessary 60 votes for the procedural motion -- and that, based on Senate history, eventual passage is likely.

"Well over 95 percent of the time, I'm told, when we approve a motion to proceed to a bill, the bill is ultimately approved," McConnell said. "Most of the time, when we proceed on the bill, the bill eventually passes."

The Republican leader quickly denied his observation was an admission of defeat, promising stiff opposition up until the final vote in the near future.

I am not quite so assured of passage as is our opponent. I doubt we'll fail for lack of one vote - no Democrat will be the only Democrat to oppose this - but a block could well stick together. Still, it is with Durbin that they consult and whip, not Kyl. No one is coming to the Republicans and saying "I'm with you." So while this may not be a white flag, it is a red flag for us bulls to charge.

Landrieu says it's triggers or nothing:

"I believe it's going to be very clear at some point very soon that there are not 60 votes for the current provision in the bill, and that the leader and the leadership are going to have to make a decision and I trust that they will figure out how to do that," Landrieu told reporters.

But before panic spreads that opt-out will immediately fall to a trigger, let's remember: we don't know how much it would cost. The only bill scored by the CBO included an opt-out public option.

So it seems somewhat unlikely that such a move would take place without getting a CBO score first, to make sure the result fell below Obama's $900 billion price tag. And that scoring hasn't happened.

And that's sixty. From The Hill:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has secured the vital 60th vote he needs to advance healthcare reform legislation with the announcement by Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) that she will vote with her part Saturday evening.

"I have concluded that it is more important to begin this debate rather than just simply drop the issue and walk away," Lincoln said on the Senate floor. "I'm not afraid of that debate."

Gee, ya think?

Now let's see if it can hold together for a couple more weeks.

Update [2009-11-21 16:8:2 by Jerome Armstrong]: Some great things in the healthcare reform:

Senate health care debate happening now on CSPAN2, and it's never too late to give your Senator a call through the capital switchboard: (202) 224-3121.  

When you're finished with that, partake of the rest of this week's best.  Enjoy.

• The Opportunity Agenda servers up a Bi-weekly Public Opinion Roundup - Health Care and Capitalism.
• Blanche Lincoln Is Out of Excuses. Help Us Keep The Pressure On! (thedonkeyedge)
• Border Jumpers writes from Kenya: Coming Up Roses for Union Members: Flower Workers Improve Workplace Conditions Through Solidarity.
• If You Believe Guantanamo Makes Us Safer You Should Have Been Here Today. (David Danzig)
• Firing Geithner not the solution writes Ravi Verma in Elections have consequences..right ?
• Climate Change Deniers' Smear Campaigns Exposed. (jamesboyce)
• A bit of good news from Steve M in The Anti-Rape Forces Get The Last Laugh.
• Report Shows 2008 Electorate is Most Diverse in Modern History. (Project Vote)

And top comment thread this week is happening now in George57's It's time to start blaming Republicans for job losses and economic meltdown.

Harry Reid is not a fan of WaPo columnist David Broder.

Reid couldn't have been less impressed. "To focus on a man who has been retired for many years and writes a column once in a while is not where we should be."

No doubt the most hilarious moment of the day.

Nice. More at TPM.

Warning: Place all liquids aside and away from your computer when watching the above trailer for Tea Party: The Documentary Film.

Sadly, the above is not a joke. The narration is priceless. And it should come as no surprise that Dick Armey's Freedom Works is assisting in the marketing of the film. Congressman Peter DeFazio warned the other day that without a new focus on jobs and small business from the White House "a faux populist" Republicanism would fill the void come 2010. Well, that's what we have to look forward to, a government of clowns.

On a more serious note, the New York Times reports that with unemployment now in double digits a number of liberal-leaning economists who see "confirmation of their warnings that the $787 billion stimulus package President Obama signed into law last February was way too small" are calling for a second round of fiscal stimulus to spur the economy and create jobs.

The legislation, a variety of economists say, is helping an economy in free fall a year ago to grow again and shed fewer jobs than it otherwise would. Mr. Obama’s promise to “save or create” about 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010 is roughly on track, though far more jobs are being saved than created, especially among states and cities using their money to avoid cutting teachers, police officers and other workers.

“It was worth doing — it’s made a difference,” said Nigel Gault, chief economist at IHS Global Insight, a financial forecasting and analysis group based in Lexington, Mass.

Mr. Gault added: “I don’t think it’s right to look at it by saying, ‘Well, the economy is still doing extremely badly, therefore the stimulus didn’t work.’ I’m afraid the answer is, yes, we did badly but we would have done even worse without the stimulus.”

In interviews, a broad range of economists said the White House and Congress were right to structure the package as a mix of tax cuts and spending, rather than just tax cuts as Republicans prefer or just spending as many Democrats do. And it is fortuitous, many say, that the money gets doled out over two years — longer for major construction — considering the probable length of the “jobless recovery” under way as wary employers hold off on new hiring.

But there are criticisms, mainly that the Obama team relied last winter on overly optimistic economic assumptions and oversold the job-creating benefits of the stimulus package.

Optimistic assumptions in turn contributed to producing a package that if anything is too small, analysts say. “The economy was weaker than we thought at the time, so maybe in retrospect we could have used a little bit more and little bit more front-loaded,” said Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, another financial analysis group, in St. Louis.