It’s almost as good as a soap opera, although it’s not obvious if you’re watching C-SPAN2 right now. Across the internet blogs are reporting on the status of the economic stimulus package vote in the Senate, and the reports are jam-packed with stories of human pathos. 

There are 57 yes votes in favor of H.R. 1 at the time of this post; three more votes are necessary for the bill to pass. Senators Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have not yet voted. Both of their anticipated yes votes are necessary for the passage of the bill, but Brown is attending his mother’s wake in Ohio this evening. The Senate has agreed to hold the vote open until Brown arrives after 10:00 p.m.; he is being retrieved at 8:00 p.m. by private plane arranged by the White House so that he can vote. Brown’s mother was 88-years-old when she passed away; she had been actively working on Brown’s behalf as recently as November.

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) is also not present and is not expected to vote; the chatter at several blog sites indicates that as long as the vote was expected to pass without his vote that he would not make the trip to Washington D.C. Some observers wonder about Kennedy’s health given how close this vote will be without Kennedy as a safety margin.

The highlight in the Senate this evening may be Sen. John Boehner’s (R-OH) comments about the bill from the floor of the Senate. He expressed anger at the size of the bill, saying that none of the Senate had actually read it before voting, then threw the 1100-page bill on the floor.

You can see this for yourself below via YouTube, where Sen. Boehner has so generously preserved his protestations for public consumption. One might wonder if Sen. Boehner has the ability to upload video of himself so rapidly why he doesn’t have mastery of technology to scan and post H.R. 1 for the public, too.