Minimum Wage: All We Want is an Up or Down Vote

David Stout reports that we have 54 Senators who think the minimum wage bill should come to the Senate floor for a vote:

Prospects for an increase in the minimum wage suffered a setback today in the Senate, where a move fell short, at least for now, to raise the minimum by $2.10 an hour without tax breaks for small businesses. The 54 “yes” votes were six short of the number needed to shut off debate and move on to consideration of the bill, which easily passed in the House two week ago … All 43 “no” votes on the motion to end debate were cast by Republicans.

Hat tip to Jonathan Zasloff who advises that we call the offices of certain Senators:

Take a look at the list of those GOP Senators who voted with the Democrats: Coleman, Collins, Warner, Specter. Notice something? Sure: three of the four are up in 2008, and two–Coleman and Collins–might have tough fights on their hands. That means that Sununu of New Hampshire and Smith of Oregon, both of whom are up in 2008, and in blue states, might need to hear from their constituents in the next few days. And loudly. If Carper shows up and votes for cloture, and Johnson recovers and votes the same in a few months, that gets us to 58 votes if Sununu and Smith are effectively pressured.