The Daily Show pointed out that Bush got his $87.5 billion for Iraq yesterday when it was passed by voice vote. The show played the voting soundtrack and the senate sounded empty. Host Jon Stewart explained that the reason for that was that there were only six senators attending the vote.

The news media isn’t saying much about this. A NY Times article put it like this: “The voice vote took place late this afternoon, with only a few senators in the chamber.”

Many articles stated, “The voice vote enabled lawmakers to sidestep the process that requires they attach their name to support for the bill and underscored the political struggles taking place on Capitol Hill and among lawmakers trying to appease their constituents.”

The lone ‘no’ voter has been identified in many news articles, but the names (or even the actual count) of the ‘yes’ votes is not being reported. Perhaps that is because it would point out that nobody was there.  However, reporting that there was a single negative vote implies strong support for the bill.

Nice spin. And a nice sidestep to go with it.

Update 11/6:

I found a link in the mainstream news to the number of voters in the NY Times:

The Senate’s action came on a voice vote with only six members present, meaning that the decisions of individual members on the administration’s vision for Iraq were not recorded. Not voting on the record appealed to both Republicans nervous about explaining the amount to their constituents, and Democrats who did not want their patriotism questioned for opposing the bill.

I always like to have a ‘reliable’ news source.