Let's not get carried away. They're still an endangered species, and this vote won't make it throught the Delay-led House. But it reminds you of a day when principle triumphed over ideology and bipartisanship meant something. Now it's just a roll call to savor:
The Senate voted last night to slap stringent new barriers on tax cuts, dealing a potentially damaging blow to President Bush's efforts to make permanent the bulk of the $1.7 trillion in tax cuts passed since he took office.
By a 51 to 48 vote, senators approved an amendment to the annual spending-and-tax blueprint for 2005 that would require any tax cuts to be offset by equal spending cuts or tax increases over the next five years. That barrier could only be waived by 60 votes in the 100-vote Senate.
But four Republicans -- Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, John McCain (Ariz.), and Lincoln D. Chafee (R.I.) -- voted with the Democrats -- all but Zell Miller (Ga.) -- to push it through.
In rare appearances [;-P], Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), the presumed Democratic nominee for president, and his vanquished rival, Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), showed up to cast votes for the measure.
And that's why McCain is simultaneously maddening and intriguing. But don't worry. He's not running with Kerry for VP.