I was going to write about impeachment and censure and all that exciting stuff, but there is a critical debate and/or vote coming up later today in the Senate, which we must turn our immediate attention to.

There is already an Action alert diary, but unfortunately it isn’t getting much traction.

After their attempt to sneak in ANWR drilling measure into the defense spending bill in December, the Republicans are at it again, and this time more lethally, and going by the December vote, we may be up to 8 votes short of preventing ANWR from becoming the backyard for oil barrons.
Back in December, Sen. Cantwell led a filibuster (apparently in close collaboration with Sen. Kerry and possibly other senators) to strip ANWR drilling provision from the Defense spending bill.

The filibuster was successful, with the cloture motion failing to receive the 60 votes needed, at 56-44.

From this dkos diary, the vote break down back then was:

  • All Democratic Senators except for 4 – Daniel Inouye, Daniel Akaka (Hawaii) Mary Landrieu (Louisiana), and Ben Nelson (Nebraska) – joined the filibuster.
  • All Republican senators voted to cut off debate, except for 2 – Republicans Lincoln Chaffee (Rhode Island) and Mike DeWine (Ohio) – who joined the filibuster.
  • After it became clear that Cantwell’s bloc was going to prevail, Frist joined on as well, so he can bring it back up again.

This time, the Republicans inserted the provision into the the budget bill, and Cantwell/Kerry introduced an amendment to strip it from that bill.

A vote calculus follows this raw story report from last night:

Debate, vote on Alaska drilling is postponed

RAW STORY
Published: Wednesday March 15, 2006

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Debate on a budget bill that would allow oil drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge has likely been postponed, RAW STORY has learned. Debate is, for the time being, expected to begin tomorrow.

Republicans have attached the controversial provision to a budget bill, thereby making it immune to a Democrat-lead filibuster. Similar efforts have derailed, or at least delayed, the plan in the past.

Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) have sponsored an amendment to the bill that would prohibit the drilling. Debate was scheduled to begin at 5 PM, EST, but has now been pushed back, due to the long list of items scheduled for debate before the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day break.

Various procedural strategies have been discussed for defeating the plan, the details of which RAW STORY will report in greater detail before tomorrow’s debate.

Vote Calculus and the Game plan: I am not sure what the procedural strategies mentioned in the raw story post may be, but let’s do a quick vote calculus assuming that the amendment comes up for an up or down vote.

  • Sen. Landrieu had a special consideration back then since aid to Katrina victims and N.O. reconstruction were also part of the spending bill. Since that is out of the way I hope that she will vote to preserve ANWR for future generations, and I hope so will Sens. Ben Nelson, Inouye and Akaka, for one of our “core principles” is at stake here (IMO): protect the enviroment from short-sighted corporate greed.
  • Assuming in hope that all the Democrats and the lone independent Sen. Jeffords stand with mother nature on this one, and that Republican Sens. Chafee and DeWine side with us, the count comes to 47. Please call them ASAP!
  • So that means that we need 4 additonal Republican crossovers. Potential candidates to rally to our side on this cause: 1&2. Sens. Snowe, Collins of Maine,  3. Sen. McCain (tell him that preserving ANWR is as imporant as preserving the Grand Canyon 🙂 well, it is), 4. Sen. Sununu (R-NH). I f we can secure these votes, then the amendment will pass!
  • Please call both of your senators (Sen. Stevens may bite you, but call his office anyway :)), regarless of their previous disposition, and talk about how they’d feel if one of the landmarks in the state you reside were to be handed over to greedy and short-sighted commercial vetures. It could just work.

So folks, it’s time for some serious citizen activism, once again.

Please look up your senators, and place your calls to save the Arctic Wildlife Refuge!

Thanks.