Even if as many as six Democrats in the Senate are voicing doubts about the $410 billion omnibus (and two have already promised to vote against it), it may still be able to get the 60 votes it needs in order to pass, as Kathryn’s source suggested.

The chief alternative to the omnibus bill would be a continuing resolution (CR) that funds the government at current levels for the rest of the year — Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) has promised that this would be precisely the consequence if the omnibus fails.

Durbin makes a good threat. A CR would represent a huge cession of power by Senate appropriators, and it would be almost entirely bereft of pork projects. That is why nine Republicans, most of them appropriators, voted against an earlier Republican amdendment to pass a CR in place of the omnibus. Now, with the threat of a CR brought up once again by Durbin, in a more realistic manner, expect some Republicans to support the omnibus bill when the cloture vote comes.

Take Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.), who describes himself as uncertain about how he will vote, but yesterday he declared that a continuing resolution would be “a bad way to run government.” Depending on how you attribute earmarks, he has as many as 40 of them riding on this omnibus, worth a total of $180 million. Alexander is by no means at the top of the earmark-getters, but his experience is instructive in understanding the choices that senators are facing right now.