'Twas the day for no-cloture,
Or least for the vote,
And the Senators prepared,
Their speeches they wrote
The chamber lay waiting
For action to start,
For the pros and the cons to
Their wisdom impart
And Frist in his big chair,
Spector on defense,
It was no wonder the
Feeling was tense
And soon from the floor
Their rose such a noise,
As Leahy and Kennedy
Gave concerns voice
With Craig and Sununu,
Feingold and then Levin,
The debate went on and on;
'Twas progressive heaven
As Dems and Republicans
Argued their case--
Kyl spoke for cloture;
Schumer to erase
The P.A.T.R.I.O.T. abuses
Like spying--"it must stop!",
While Feingold pointed out
'Twas a bipartisan op
By Dems and Repubs to oppose
Cloture, for they know
This "P.A.T.R.I.O.T." Act
Has really got to to.
Though I did not watch it,
I have still heard say
That Durbin rounded out
The no-vote crowd this day.
And then from the floor
The silence grew loud,
The Senators waiting,
Some worried, some proud,
And then the roll-call began,
Name after name,
And Senators fin'ly learned
How close their side came.
Akaka and Baucus,
Bayh, Biden, and Kohl,
Bingaman, Boxer, Byrd,
And on went the roll:
Cantwell and Carper,
Clinton and Conard,
All no-voted cloture,
And company had
In Corzine and Dayton,
Dorgan, Kennedy,
Durbin, Feingold, Feinstein,
Those "No's" were ready
And so on with Harkin,
Inouye, Kerry,
Landrieu, Lautenburg,
Levin and Leahy,
And Lincoln and Murray,
Lieberman, too--
Joementum can't stop
This "No" train coming through--
Mikulski and Nelson,
Obama, Pryor, Reed,
Rockefeller, Sarbanes,
Schumer--they all did the deed,
Last of the Dems Wyden,
Stabenow, and
Salazar, and then Reid
Chose to take a stand.
But don't forget others
Who stood for us, too--
Craig, Hagel, Murkowski,
Also Sununu
And Jeffords, they voted
"No cloture" to a man,
To prevent bad law from
Governing the land.
But Frist, you may say,
Voted "No Cloture," too.
'Twas procedural only,
I am telling you.
From the top of the House
To the side of the wall,
"Thank you from America,"
To you D's, I's, and R's all
Who voted 'gainst cloture,
Renewal did block--
I'll say it again:
Thanks, everyone! You rock
***
part i: 'Twas the War Against Christmas
part ii: 'Twas the Night Before Voting
part iii: 'Twas the Day for No-Cloture