WASHINGTON (AP) — In a triumph for President Barack Obama, sweeping legislation to strengthen the administration's hand in global trade talks advanced toward Senate passage Thursday after a showdown vote that remained in doubt until the final moment. The 62-38 vote, two more than the 60 needed, came from a solid phalanx of Republicans and more than a dozen Democrats. But the decisive thumbs-up came — literally, and long past the allotted time — from Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington after she and a few others seized the moment as leverage to demand a vote next month on legislation to renew the Export-Import Bank.
"It was a nice victory. We're going to continue and finish up the bill this week," Majority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Obama's most important Senate ally on the trade bill, said after sealing the agreement that Cantwell, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and others had sought.
The Senate action to move toward a final vote was "a big step forward," Obama said at the White House, predicting that a trade deal would "open up access to markets that too often are closed." The president was up late Wednesday night placing telephone calls to lawmakers, and he spoke with Cantwell again shortly before the vote. ...
Poster comment:
Click for Full roll call vote Even comrades king and collins voted against it, Imagine, if you can, lindsey graham and mitch McConnell have actually out rinoed collins and out commied anus da king.
