Beyond the Dome

Well, that was a surprise. Hillary Rodham Clinton stopped by the Senate again this morning for a pair of votes on a veterans’ benefits bill – the second day in a row she has shown up for votes.

This time, though, Barack Obama wasn’t there. (He was in Chicago.) So her appearance lacked the drama of last night’s vote on a wage discrimination bill, where the two Democratic presidential rivals mingled with their Senate colleagues but stayed as far away from each other as possible.

It did give her bragging rights, though. By voting for the veterans’ benefits bill and against a Republican amendment that would have stripped out benefits for Filipino war veterans, Clinton can say she stood up for another popular cause.

And just in time for her North Carolina event this afternoon on “Solutions to Strengthen America’s Military,” which included – among other things – a promise to fight for veterans’ benefits if she’s elected president. Obama had to settle for putting out a statement about how much he supported the bill.

The bottom line: Clinton added two votes to her Senate record for this year, while Obama and Republican John McCain added none. So has she built a lead over Obama in the number of votes she's made? Or, at least, caught up to him?

Not really. As of today, CQ’s records show Obama has made 50 percent of this year's recorded votes in the Senate, while Clinton has only made 45 percent. (McCain trails with 32 percent.)

So, while Clinton may have edged a little bit closer to Obama, she hasn’t caught up to him yet.

There’s probably some kind of metaphor here, but I can't imagine what it is.