treaty. the white house, robert gibbs said as recently as today he expects it to pass. i think we re going to look at 60 votes to end debate. i m sorry, the ratification vote. 67 votes. that s the problem here. you know, this is a treaty ratification. this is a super majority. i think if president obama, if start goes through, if he gets start, don t ask, don t tell, and the tax compromise package, that s pretty good for a pat that suffered a significant setback on november second. a setback he himself calling a shellacking. then the question we ve been bringing up today is the possibility of still squeezing in one more victory, which would be the 9/11 first responders health care bill. yes, yes. and that depends on getting the short-term spending so called continuing resolution done, and, of course, the start treaty ratifyuation. we ve been talking about this
this lame duck session of congress. senate majority leader harry reid scheduled a vote to end senate debate on this finish for tomorrow. that means 60 votes for passage, which appears to be a given. the uncertainty, however, is the ratification vote, which needs 67 votes, and that means votes from at least nine republicans. you can count against senate minority leader mitch mcconnell being one of the nine republican votes as you heard. the white house says it wasn t expecting mcconnell s vote, however. democrats still believe they can get these 67 votes for ratification but it won t be easy. in addition to work on the new start treaty, the senate will be taking action on the health care legislation for 9/11 first responders, as well as action on the continuing resolution. i know that s washington speak to keep the government in operation until march. back to you, savannah. but we re all familiar with it now. nbc news deputy political