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No Vote Yet on Coburn Package

GOP Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.) and Tom Coburn (Okla.), two fiscally conservative lawmakers, may just have escaped an embarrassing blow from their Senate colleagues.

While Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) filled the amendment tree on his oil speculation bill, he did not call up a vote for a package of bills that either both or one of the two GOP Senators have objected to.

Reid initially threatened to hold a Saturday vote on the GOP package, arguing that many of the bills that DeMint or Coburn objected to has bipartisan support and would easily pass had it not been for the two men.

Coburn, however, charged that he has rejected many of the bills because had he or DeMint not objected to them, the bills would be passed with little GOP input. He also criticized many of the bills as wasteful spending.

A Democratic leadership aide said that package is “not off the table” and that Reid will likely move to it this weekend.

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