Hell hasn't frozen over, but...

...the devil is putting on a jacket tonight. :)

In a truly bipartisan show of support for America's beleaguered pharmaceutical companies (only $40 billion in profits for the first 6 months of 2006! The shame of it! Whatever can be done about this corporate poverty?!? source: House Oversight and Government Reform), today the Senate gutted S1082, the Prescription Drug User Fee Amendments of 2007 Act.

The voted added an amendment to the bill, sponsored by Sen. Ted Kennedy, that while still putatively allowing Americans to buy their prescription medicines abroad, requires that the U.S. government certify the drugs' safety before they can be allowed into the U.S.

The government (aka - Bush Administration) has already said that they cannot make such certifications.

The vote on the amendment was 49 in favor, 40 against, 11 not voting.

15 Democrats, including the writer of the original bill, Sen. Kennedy, voted for the amendment. Kennedy stated that he voted for the amendment to help ensure that the bill isn't vetoed.

10 Republicans voted against the amendment.

You know that things are screwy when Ted Kennedy and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) are together on one side of an issue (aye) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Trent Lott (R-MS) are together on the other side of the same issue (nay).

And in an unsurprising development, our own John McCain was one of the 11 who missed the vote. To be fair though, four other presidential candidates also missed the vote (Biden, Brownback, Dodd and Obama).

"Follow the money" is a phrase, that I'm sad to say, should be applied to Democrats, too.

MSM coverage -

AP here.

GlobeandMail.com here.

Later!