Witching Hour In The Senate

It looks like the Senate got a little crazy tonight in a fight over amendments that involved Bill Clinton, Guantanamo Bay and Scooter Libby.

The details are sketchy, but the office of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) emailed a timeline late this evening of their take on the night.

Amid a debate on an education reconcilation act, McConnell offered an amendment expressing the sense of the Senate that detainees held at Guantanamo Bay not be transferred anywhere inside the United States. The amendment passed, 94-3, with Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) voting against it.

About 90 minutes later, Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) put up his own "sense of the Senate" amendment calling on President Bush not to pardon Scooter Libby.

He appeared to be responding, at least in part, to the Guantanamo amendment. Or perhaps it was a reaction to an earlier amendment preventing the Federal Communications Commission from "repromulgating the fairness doctrine" for talk radio. Republicans passed it, 49-48, with the help of Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.). Or maybe it was a different Republican amendment that dealt with union organizing.