There's some misreporting out there as to the witness vote. Right now there are 49 votes for witnesses and America is waiting to hear from Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. If she assents to witnesses, the question goes to tiebreaker Chief Justice Roberts. And no one knows what he'll do.
PS/ In other words, I hope both readers and media will stop spreading the story that the witness vote is all but certain to fail. Many people believe that Murkowski will be a "yes" vote, and *no one* has any *clue* what Roberts will do.
PS2/ While my gut tells me Murkowski is a 50/50 bet, and that Roberts lacks courage, I certainly don't understand all these news articles saying "Witness Vote Almost Certain to Fail," because that's factually not where we're at. At the moment, we're in limbo.
PS3/ The *worst* take: Collins and Romney voted yes only because they knew there'd be no witnesses. Murkowski clearly has not yet made any announcement to anyone, and we don't know what Roberts will do, so you cannot say that last night Romney and Collins knew how this would end.
PS4/ My take, but it's a hunch rather than news of any sort, is the chance of witnesses being called is about 20%. I certainly don't think, as I said, that news outlets like CNN should be repeatedly saying "the witness vote is all but certain to fail." That'd be like 2%-3% odds.
