Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) employed as an unpaid intern in his Senate office an illegal immigrant who was a registered sex offender, now under arrest by immigration authorities, the AP reports.

The Homeland Security Department instructed federal agents not to arrest him until after Election Day.

Associated Press: “Sen. John Kerry is angling to be the nation’s top diplomat by being, well, diplomatic. The longtime Democratic lawmaker from Massachusetts has largely stayed quiet while President Obama considers him for the next secretary of state. Kerry has asked his supporters to avoid overt lobbying of the White House on his behalf. And he’s defended his chief rival for the post, Susan Rice, amid Republican criticism of her initial explanation of the attack on Americans in Benghazi, Libya. Kerry’s strategy reflects what people close to the senator say is his disdain for some aspects of Washington’s personnel politics.”

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer tells the Huffington Post that President Obama supports efforts to reform the filibuster process in the U.S. Senate.

Said Pfeiffer: “The President has said many times that the American people are demanding action. They want to see progress, not partisan delay games. That hasn’t changed, and the President supports Senator Reid’s efforts to reform the filibuster process.”

Daily Beast: The coming filibuster war.

Sen.-elect Tim Kaine (D-VA) told the Richmond Times-Dispatch he hopes to remain in the U.S. Senate a long time.

Said Kain: “I want to do more. I decided when I ran: Don’t do this unless you think this is likely to be the last job you have in your life. I want to do it, and I want to do it for a long while. I’m kind of using (former Sen.) John Warner as my model as somebody who dug in, did it for a long time, accomplished a lot of good, and the fact that he was there for a while enabled him to attain positions that helped him do good things for the country and the commonwealth.”

When asked if he might run for president, he said, “Let’s see, if I serve for 30 years, I’ll be 86… probably not, no.”

The New York Times has a great piece on the U.S. Senate’s slide into gridlock, including how a procedure designed to speed things up called filling the tree led to even more filibusters.

“The increased use of the tactic, which had previously been rare, is part of the procedural warfare that has reached a zenith over the past two years in the Senate. Republicans threaten to filibuster and propose politically charged amendments, Democrats fill the amendment tree, and Republicans filibuster in retaliation.”

“The tactic initially meant to speed bills has instead helped slow them down. The Senate — the legislative body that was designed as the saucer to cool the House’s tempestuous teacup — has become a deep freeze, where even once-routine matters have become hopelessly stuck and a supermajority is needed to pass almost anything.”

The Week: Is it finally time to reform the filibuster?

Aides to two senators on the Senate Banking Committee tell Mother Jones the financial services industry has already moved to block Sen.-elect Elizabeth Warren from joining the committee, which is charged with drafting legislation regulating much of the financial industry.

Wonk Wire has more on the efforts to keep Warren off the committee.

Jeffrey Toobin: “The most important action the Senate takes in January may not involve any legislation at all. Early next year, when the latest group of senators convene for the first time, the ‘world’s greatest deliberative body’ may finally do something worthy of its nickname: reform the filibuster.”

“The filibuster long ago shed its association with the principled stand of dedicated outsiders; Mr. Smith left Washington decades ago. Rather, the opposition parties of the past couple of decades–and especially the Republicans in the Obama era–have transformed the filibuster from a weapon deployed in extraordinary circumstances into a routine part of Senate business. In recent years, it’s become the rule, rather than the exception, that the majority has to muster sixty votes to get anything done. With fifty-three Democrats in the Senate (fifty-five starting next year), this means that Republicans have been able to slow the upper body to a virtual standstill.”

Wonk Wire: The last filibuster?

The Huffington Post has the outlines of a Democratic proposal to weaken the filibuster in the U.S. Senate.

“The critical component, though, is a mechanism that would force senators to physically take the floor and speak in order to maintain opposition to legislation. The effort to end a filibuster is called a cloture motion. Under the proposed rules, if a cloture vote failed to win a simple majority, the bill would be killed and the Senate would move to new business. But if it won a majority — though less than a supermajority of 60 — the bill would remain on the floor for any senator who wished to opine on it. If at some point no senator rose to speak, after given several chances to do so, a new vote would be called — and only a simple majority would be needed to pass it.”

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) skipped a classified Senate briefing on the Benghazi consulate attack to hold a press conference about the lack of information on the same attack. When CNN asked him about it, he exploded.

[Read more…]

“For the first time, there was a traffic jam in the Senate women’s bathroom. There were five of us in there, and there are only two stalls.”

— Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), quoted by the Washington Post, noting that the next Senate will have a record 20 women.

New York Times:
“If there was still any thought that President Obama and Senator John
McCain might eventually move past their once-bitter White House rivalry
toward a cooperative governing agenda, it was all but dashed on
Wednesday.”

Politico: “There’s a new gang of senators who ran their campaigns as unabashed progressives and won… But the question in a divided Senate is whether the new liberals will be hard-liners who refuse to compromise with the tea party types on the other side of the aisle or negotiators, like Kennedy, who made deals with Republicans ranging from Ronald Reagan to Rep. John Boehner to George W. Bush. In the modern Senate, it’s a lot harder to do the kind of work that won Kennedy fans on the Republican side.”

Sen.-elect Angus King (I-ME) said that he could announce a decision on which caucus to join in time for tomorrow’s party leadership elections, Roll Call reports.

While King is widely expected to caucus with the Democratic majority, he still has not ruled out joining the Republicans.

Politico: “Angus King is gunning for a seat on the powerful Senate Finance Committee, using his leverage as the potential 55th vote for Democrats in a bid to win a spot that would otherwise be off-limits for a newly elected freshman.”

“The chances are good, but not guaranteed, that Elizabeth Warren will secure a highly coveted seat on the Senate Banking Committee, a move that would dramatically elevate her campaign against Wall Street excess,” Reuters reports.

Warren “is a logical fit
for the committee, even though it is rare for a freshman senator
to get such a plum assignment.”

CNBC: “If Warren is kept off Banking the official rationale will be that she lacked the seniority to land a seat on committee… But don’t be fooled by formalism. The seniority rule is informal and could, of course, be waved to seat Warren on banking. It’s really up to Reid as Senate Majority leader to make committee assignments. If he wants Warren on the committee, she gets the seat. If she doesn’t want her on the committee, she won’t. This is a matter of discretion.”

Wonk Wire: The anti-banker joins the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was taken to the emergency room at University Medical Center in Las Vegas following a traffic accident, the Las Vegas Review Journal reports.

A Las Vegas police spokesman said Reid was the only person transported to the hospital, mainly for “minor rib injuries.”

Former Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) has died at age 82, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

“On Monday mornings when I get up, I get up about 4:30 to catch a flight to come back up here. And I’ve noticed that I have an attitude problem, I don’t want to come anymore. And the reason I don’t want come anymore is because we’re not doing anything to address the real problems that are in front of our country.”

— Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), quoted by ABC News on the Senate floor.

Nate Silver‘s latest forecast has the odds of Democrats retining control of the U.S. Senate after November’s election — either by having at least 50 seats and the presidency, or 51 without it — have increased in recent weeks to a 70% chance.

“The trend toward Democrats is a relatively recent one. Part of the shift may reflect the bounce President Obama received from the Democratic convention… But our analysis also suggests that the Democratic advantage has probably been building over the past few weeks, and may not have any one root cause. Instead, Republicans risk death by a thousand cuts, with a gradual deterioration in their standing in several important races, and their inability to field optimal candidates in others.”