Beyond the Dome

Today's Senate votes on the supplemental spending bill for Iraq are a classic case of the kinds of headaches the presidential race is causing the Democratic leadership.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will need 60 votes to win the chamber's approval for funding for the Iraq war, policy restrictions, and an expanded package of educational benefits for veterans authored by Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia. That means the votes of Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, both of whom had planned to campaign in Florida today, will be critical.

Clinton cancelled her Florida schedule last night, giving plenty of notice that she'll be in Washington today for the votes. But Obama kept it coy until the last minute. He had a town hall meeting scheduled in Florida for noon today, an event that would have been difficult to cancel or reschedule.

But the timing made it difficult to schedule votes for any time that would have allowed him to show up. So Democratic leaders went ahead and scheduled a series of four votes for 11:30 this morning.

A few minutes ago, Obama announced he'll be here -- just for the morning votes. His town hall meeting in Florida has been pushed back until late afternoon.