Getting to 60 votes

With Tuesday’s scheduled swearing-in of Carte Goodwin (D-W.Va.), Democratic leaders in the Senate appear to have the votes to pass an extension of unemployment benefits. 

The appointment to replace the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) does not, however, give Democrats 60 votes on House-passed legislation on war funding and campaign finance reform. 

{mosads}Republicans appear to be uniting against those bills. Pressed by their House counterparts, Senate Democratic leaders are expected to hold a vote on the House war supplemental bill, though the education funding has triggered protests from the GOP. The campaign finance measure still does not have a Republican co-sponsor.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) wants to move an energy bill before the August recess and Democrats, lacking 60 votes, have indicated they will move a scaled-back bill.

In a troubling sign for Democrats, Goodwin last week said, “From what I’ve seen of the Waxman-Markey bill that passed the House of Representatives and other proposals pending in the Senate, they simply are not right for West Virginia.” 

Supreme Court Justice nominee Elena Kagan will get more than 60 votes when her nomination hits the floor next month. The question this week is if she will attract any Republican votes in the Judiciary Committee. Senate Judiciary panel member Lindsey Graham (S.C.), one of nine Republicans to back Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination, may back Kagan.

President Obama on Wednesday will sign the financial regulatory reform bill. That could give Democrats an opportunity to put last week’s tension between the White House and House Democrats behind them. 

Still, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs’s comment about how there are enough competitive House seats in play for the lower chamber to flip has triggered stories that have spilled into this week about Democratic angst over the midterm elections. 

David Cameron on Tuesday will visit the White House for the first time as Great Britain’s prime minister, and the BP oil spill will be one of the main topics on the agenda.

Hearings this week include Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, the Finance Committee analyzing the Troubled Asset Relief Program and the Intelligence Committee reviewing the nomination of James Clapper as director of national intelligence.