Senate Republicans blocked a $410 billion omnibus spending measure on Thursday night, forcing Congressional Democrats to prepare a stopgap budget resolution to keep the federal government from shutting down.

The ability of the diminished minority to delay the bill signaled growing unease in Congress, among Democrats and Republicans, over the levels of government spending in recent months and the staggering increase in the federal deficit.

The delay of the bill was an embarrassment for Democrats and a striking, if temporary, victory for critics of so-called earmark spending initiatives, who had criticized the bill as bloated with wasteful expenditures.

Among those critics were Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and two Democrats who opposed the measure, Senators Evan Bayh of Indiana and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin.

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[From an earlier edition]
Representative Harry E. Mitchell, Democrat of Arizona, said he voted against the measure primarily because in included a sizable increase in financing for Congress itself. “We need to restrain,” Mr. Mitchell said in an interview. “You can’t just continually go on a binge like this.”

Oh, McCain was a Yea, too.

Four months after he lost his bid for the White House, no one in the Senate really knows what to make of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

This week McCain tried to strip most of the earmarks from a pending $410 billion omnibus spending bill.

The effort failed. While the former GOP presidential candidate managed to rally 30 of his Republican colleagues behind his amendment, once it was struck down, 27 of them were happy to abandon the stand and accept their millions of dollars in earmarks, now secure in the bill.

The moment seemed to answer a question raised immediately after the Arizona senator lost the presidential election. McCain apparently has not returned from the campaign trail to assume the role of party leader.

Yet his earmark crusade, which included a rousing speech this week on the Senate floor, once again thrust the maverick back into the limelight. And it managed to capture the attention of the man who sent him back to the upper chamber.

President Obama invited McCain to the White House on Wednesday, despite his having given the Monday floor speech that ripped Obama and senior White House officials for what he called their disingenuous stance on earmarks.

McCain told The Hill that Obama pledged, during their meeting, to work with him on earmarks, which Senate observers interpreted as an effort by the president to mend an important relationship.

The state’s two senators – Republicans John McCain and Jon Kyl – both plan to miss the event at Dobson High School. They say they were neither invited nor informed of the president’s visit to their home turf in time to alter their plans and show up for the speech.

Republican Gov. Jan Brewer greeted the president when he arrived Tuesday afternoon at Sky Harbor International Airport, and plans to attend the speech in Mesa, said spokesman Paul Senseman.

Not surprisingly, Democrats who represent areas of the East Valley will be out in force. Reps. Harry Mitchell and Ed Pastor, both Arizona Democrats, will attend the speech at Dobson, which is in Mitchell’s district. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., is planning to attend the president’s speech, but fellow congressional Democratic Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick and Gabrielle Giffords are not.

Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who represents most of Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert and Queen Creek, will not be attending the speech, according to spokesman Matthew Specht.

Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., is not planning to attend, and was not invited, according to a spokeswoman.

And Obama just hung out with Trent Franks at the Super Bowl, so you know.

Proponents of the so-called economic stimulus bill have argued that legislation is necessary to stimulate our economy. We agree. The nation needs legislation that creates jobs, fixes our housing crisis, and puts us on a path toward economic recovery.

Unfortunately, the legislation Congress passed on Friday does not achieve these goals. Instead, this massive, out-of-control spending bill will only serve to increase our burgeoning national debt and do little to help Americans who are facing foreclosures, layoffs and financial challenges.

Arizona has experienced the largest number of home foreclosures in the United States, behind Nevada and Florida. Phoenix leads every metropolitan area in the country for the greatest decline in home values in 2008. Over a third of all homes sold in Tucson last year were sold at a loss. The housing crisis in Arizona is exacerbated by the significant job losses the state has experienced.

The fact is, we are in uncharted territory, and no one knows for sure how best to handle the economic crisis.

The fact that the government has built only 32 of the 700 miles-of double-layer fencing that Congress initially mandated in 2006 is partly the result of the amendment that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) slipped into the omnibus appropriations bill enacted in December 2007.

“There was certainly some bureaucratic wiggle room, and they used it,” [Rep. Duncan] Hunter said.

That appropriations bill also required DHS to consult with local entities before beginning construction in order “to minimize the impact on the environment, culture, commerce, and quality of life” for local communities and residents.

Hutchison’s amendment easing the border-fence mandate was co-sponsored by other border state senators, including John Cornyn (R.-Texas), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), John McCain (R.-Ariz.) Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), Jeff Bingaman (D.-N.M.), Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.), and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).

SEN. JON KYL (R-Ariz.)

1. Do you prepare your own taxes? Has not responded.
2. If not, who does? Has not responded.
3. Have you or the IRS ever discovered an error on a tax return you’ve filed? Has not responded.
4. Have you ever paid back taxes? Has not responded.
5. If the answer to either 3 or 4 is yes, please explain. Has not responded.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-Ariz.)

1. Do you prepare your own taxes? No.
2. If not, who does? The McCain family accountant.
3. Have you or the IRS ever discovered an error on a tax return you’ve filed? No.
4. Have you ever paid back taxes? No.
5. If the answer to either 3 or 4 is yes, please explain. N/A.

John McCain’s amendment to prohibit the applicability of Buy American requirements in the stimulus bill to the utilization of funds provided by the Act failed 31 – 65. The Senate is still working on the stimulus.

House

S 352, the DTV Delay Act, passed the House 264 – 158. The bill’s purpose is to postpone the DTV transition date.

Yea: Kirkpatrick, Pastor, Mitchell, Grijalva, Giffords
Nay: Franks, Shadegg
Not voting: Flake

H.R. 738, the Death in Custody Reporting Act, passed the House 407 – 1. The bill seeks to encourage States to report to the Attorney General certain information regarding the deaths of individuals in the custody of law enforcement agencies.

All members of Arizona’s delegation voted Yea, except for Jeff Flake, who does not seem to be around.

So White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says President Obama invited some congressional folks over to watch the Super Bowl, huh?

Here’s the we’ve been able to track down on the Senate side (in between asking questions about the stimulus, of course).

Steelers are represented by Arlen Specter (R) and Bob Casey (D).
– Casey: invited and accepted. His office says he’s bring “terrible towels” and something called Eat’n Park Cookies’ (a Pittsburgh thing we’re told)
– haven’t heard back from Specter’s office *** UPDATE *** Specter’s office confirms he has been invited, but staff is trying to sort his day’s schedule

Cardinals are represented by Republicans John McCain and Jon Kyl.
– McCain has been invited but will not attend
– Kyl’s office can’t confirm he’s been invited, but Kyl was planning on watching the game with his family

Republican John McCain intends to run in 2010 for a fifth term in the U.S. Senate, and the recent history of senators thwarted in bids for president suggests he’ll be able to rebound smartly from his loss to Democrat Barack Obama in last November’s White House contest.

John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who narrowly lost in 2004 to President George W. Bush , coasted to an easy victory last year for a fifth Senate term. Even South Dakota Democrat George S. McGovern, fresh off his 1972 landslide defeat at the hands of President Richard M. Nixon, came back to win a third Senate term in 1974, though he lost when he went to that well one more time in 1980.

Obama even gave McCain a big break by taking his strongest potential Arizona Democratic challenger out of the picture. Obama selected Janet Napolitano, a popular governor due to run up against the state’s term-limit law in 2010, as his pick to head the Department of Homeland Security. Until she accepted the Cabinet post, Napolitano appeared likely to run for the Senate in 2010, and early hypothetical polls suggested she would be a strong contender.

No one else appears poised to provide such a threat with Napolitano moved on to Washington.