Reply #22: After I wrote the above, I

[Inuca]

read and heard a bit more about Portman. I already knew he was Bush's OMB director, but supposedly he is knowledgeable and not too extreme, relatively speaking. The speculation was that id there is a chance of one R to "turn", act rational and vote with the Ds, he is probably the one. One of the comments along these lines came from Jonathan Alter, saying that he is far form optimistic, but he has some hope for Portman. The fact that he is a brand new senator and does not have to worry about re-election for a while is also a +. We shall see...