There were hopes that the Senate would have a vote yesterday to move along the gun background check bill, but Sen. Joe Manchin acknowledged to CNN that he and Sen. Pat Toomey don't yet have the 60 votes they need to clear the next hurdle.

Never mind the fact that Harry Reid promised an open amendment process so that the gun nuts can try to add all sorts of nonsense to the bill --lots of that stuff might already be included!

My pal Cliff Schecter told me that anything that Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation says is about as credible as the NY Post reporting on the Boston marathon bombing. But I still think it's worth repeating that, speaking in front of a GOP gathering in Portland on Friday, Gottlieb bragged that he and his staff were actually in the room with Manchin and Toomey and helped write the bill.