8:09 EST: Dodd, presiding over the Senate, said the motion passed, smattering of applause. Motion is agreed to. Clerk is now reporting the bill and amendment.

And that's it for the night. Debate will begin after Thanksgiving, plus amendments, then moving on to the final cloture motion and a final vote.

8:04 EST: Cloture passes 60-39. Debate will start after Thanksgiving.

7:57 EST: Voting continuing.

7:56 EST: Clerk reading cloture motion.

The question is: Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the motion to proceed shall be brought to a close. Clerk is calling the roll.

Voting now.

7:55 EST: Vote starting 5 minutes early.

7:54 EST: Absence of a quorum noted by Reid, and the roll is being called. Vote coming soon!

7:44 EST: The American people want us to start over. All it would take is just one on the other side of the aisle to not end the debate, but change the debate.

And he's yielded.

Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) is up.

My friend, the minority leader, has had since Wednesday to read the bill. Obviously he hasn't done so.

We debate the right to live free of disease and death by giving health care for all. The road has started many times, never been completed. Merged bills have never been done before. We couldn't have got here without the help of many Senators.

As a matter of principle, that I respect, the senior Senator from Arkansas insisted we have time to read the bill. All Senators have now had ample time. That is why we are voting tonight.

I invite Republicans to join the right side of history. Around dining room tables, families are agonizing over what to sacrifice next to afford health care. Employers are wondering whether they can afford to provide health care. Americans need reform.

Debate is constant, but the only place where silence is evened considered is the Senate. Now, finally, we have the opportunity to bring this great deliberation to this body. That and nothing more is what this vote does.

A yes vote says this issue is important and the Senate should at least talk about it.

Some Republicans would like Americans to think voting to debate the bill is voting to pass the bill. Tonight's vote is only the beginning of debate. It's clear Republicans have no problem talking about health care on TV, at town hall meetings, on the radio, yet now that we have the legislation to debate, to amend, to build on, will they refuse to debate?

If we refuse to let the Senate do its job, what are we doing here? What do we fear? And who's voice to you speak for? In who's interest do you vote?

Certainly debating reform can't be more difficult than American deciding to pay their mortgage or medical bills. It can't be more upsetting than having an insurance company take away your coverage when you need it the most.

Kennedy once said let us not be afraid of debate or discussion, let us encourage it.

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Well, folks, they've done it again. Cable news has now elevated Dick Cheney to a place as high as our new commander in chief.

WTF is wrong with these people? When Al Gore gave speeches after a few years, they would be broadcast on CSPAN because the Bushies were in charge, but obviously the networks want this to be the tale of the Duel Between Dick Cheney and Barack Obama. One is a disgraced former vice president, a torture lover who lied us into two wars and has a lower approval rating than people who identify as Republicans, vs. President Barack Obama, one of the most popular leaders of the free world and the man in charge of cleaning up the mess Cheney and Bush left in their wake.

Greg Sargent:

Looks like Dick Cheney’s big national security speech at the American Enterprise Institute tomorrow is going to get wall-to-wall cable coverage — giving a major assist to those who hope that his speech will be seen as “dueling” with the one that Obama is planning to give on the same topic tomorrow.

Both CNN and MSNBC will be carrying Cheney’s speech live tomorrow, in addition to carrying Obama’s, spokespeople for both networks confirm to me, barring the intrusion of some major news event. Fox News will certainly be all over the Cheney speech tomorrow — a major cataclysm couldn’t tear them away from such a big moment. So that means roadblocked cable coverage for Cheney.

Obama is set to deliver his big speech on national security at 10 A.M. Cheney’s is set to follow at 10:45. Politico framed the story of tomorrow’s speeches in advance in a piece called: “Barack Obama, Dick Cheney plan dueling speeches.”
This, naturally, raised some hackles on the left, where people pointed out that Obama is the Commander in Chief, meaning his national security views have real-world significance, while Dick Cheney is a private citizen who only has his reputation at stake.

In other words, goes this argument, their speeches will only be “dueling” if folks in the media make the decision to present them that way. Republicans, meanwhile, hope that coverage does proceed along these lines, helping to elevate Cheney and taking down Obama a peg or two.

Greg Sargent does a wonderful job as usual. Looks like the cable newsmen have already made the call.

Cheney's speech is a side show at a carnival act because the Republicans would rather try to rebrand the Democratic party as socialists while President Obama's words impact the entire world, but the media heads are only looking for their favorite selling point: "Conflict"
Yes, that sounds about equal. They want this to be Frazier and Ali, but it's about a liar and a sadist getting free airtime to attack a president who is trying to restore the country's footing after eight years of "compassionate conservatism." Wars, death, torture, wiretapping, loyalty oaths and moles planted in every department of the government which includes the OLC (the arm of the government that the Bushies used to try and give them legal cover for the crimes they committed) are part of Cheney's legacy. Isn't this just what the country needs? To hear a man trying to repair a record of death and destruction with blood dripping from his hands. To be continued....

Download | play    Download | play   (h/t Heather)

I'm a big CSpan fan, don't get me wrong, but there are moments like this one from Washington Journal that chap my hide, because the nature of the program doesn't allow for anything but the uninterrupted and unchallenged spewing of unmitigated bovine excrement.  Of course, that's the format that Hugh Hewitt works best in, and this is a prime example of Hewitt's fact-free hackery.  

Caller: Good morning. Hugh, they used to carry your show here in Jacksonville, 50,000 watt station that the circumference of that station attract 2 million voters or 2 million listeners, I should say and they dropped you and Michael Medved the same day. And they...we refer to it down here as "hate radio" that station is just...they never attract over 2,000 listeners at one time at any given moment. They eventually put you on over time delay at night. And you had less than 200 listeners, according to ratings done in the paper. But you know, you right-wing radio people days are over with the average person. We're well aware of your hate-spewing you do against strictly Democrats, strictly Democrats. And it's all over but the crying. Read the polls. Read the polls, [croons] it's all over but the crying....good morning, Hugh.

Hewitt: Good morning to you. I do regret that they had a format change in Jacksonville and we lost our Jacksonville audience. You can still pick me up in Orlando, Tampa, Sarasota, Pensacola and 120 stations across the United States. They're all listed at HughHewitt.com. And the good news for the people of the great city of New York is that we go up in New York in August. It's the 6th or 7th most listened to radio show in the United States. I'm glad that it's growing-not falling-and I think that in fact, center-right conversation of the sort I do, for example, eight consecutive weeks with EJ Dionne, the wonderful left-of-center liberal columnist for the Washington Post, about his book Sold Out, isn't hate talk at all. It's conversation about the most important issues. And in fact, the characterization of conservative talk radio as "hate talk" is always a giveaway that the left doesn't really want to engage in the issues, because if you talk about these issues, if you talk about the appeasement policies of Senator Barack, if you talk about the "don't drill" Democrats and their indifference to the cost of gasoline and the toll it's taking on middle-class America. Americans note this, it's a fundamentally center-right country, and I do not doubt for a moment a lot of the left wing wants to silence conservatives on the radio, they want to silence...they don't exist in network television, so they don't want them to go there. But it's not going to work, because I think ultimately the folks who listen and hear and are persuaded by a comprehensive, collegial, civil conversation as such that happens on conservative talk radio every single day want to keep it there.

Cowardly Lion say what?  There are no conservatives on network television?  It is to laugh.  When you have Charlie Gibson near in tears over the unfair advantage of being a candidate that many people want to donate to in lieu of his man McCain and Brian Williams tossing softballs over Bush's reading list while ignoring that he ignored Katrina victims and all the networks refusing to admit complicity in light of Scott McClellan's revelations, are we really expected to believe the "liberal media" meme? 

And let's talk about that wonderfully "civil" conservative (which is, by definition, not center-right, you genius) talk radio: You know, the kind where Ingraham berates a caller, Sussman tells a caller to prove he's not a Muslim by saying "Allah is a whore.", advocating death for the editor of the NY Times, or calling for riots at conventions.  And that just took 15 seconds of site searching.  Yeah, you guys are incredibly civil.