Senate finally does something

The Senate Democrats finally got their act together and managed to snag a couple of GOPers to overcome GOP obstruction of the small business bill. We knew since last week that retiring Sen. George Voinovich was going to break ranks to help. And he made a brave statement about it:

In an interview, Voinovich said he could no longer support Republican efforts to delay the measure in hopes of winning the right to offer additional amendments. Most of the proposed GOP amendments "didn't have anything to do with the bill" anyway, Voinovich said, and amounted merely to partisan "messaging."

"We don't have time for messaging," Voinovich said. "We don't have time anymore. This country is really hurting."

Unclear why GOP appointee George Lemieux of Florida got on board with some actual governance. Maybe he doesn't care about party loyalty since he's not running to keep the office, though he appears to be a career pol in general and this breach could hurt his future prospects. In any event, good for him for joining Voinovich in moving this tiny little bill forward. Cheers me up a bit to see the GOP's intractable obstructionism broken once in a while.