Update 5/24 (2pm): Frist's cloture motion passed this morning by a large margin. Click here for updates.

The Senate will tomorrow (Wednesday) hold a cloture vote on S.2611. "Cloture" ends debate on a bill and puts it before the Senate for a final vote. Should the motion for cloture be passed, S.2611 will likely go before the assembled Senate by week's end.

Senate Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), who introduced the cloture motion, explained it this way:

We allowed discussion and debate, and I think the country's understanding of this legislation, which is complex, has improved over the course of the several weeks we've had it on the floor.

Translation: the Senate debate has been too successul in alerting the American people to the stakes of the present legislation. Quick! Let's move on!

The Washington Post reports:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) filed a “cloture motion” designed to keep the bill’s opponents from using endless debate to delay a vote beyond this week.

Now that sounds more like it.

Should Frist's motion pass and the Senate approve the bill, it will then be sent to a House-Senate Conference committee to hammer out a compromise. At the moment, the House seems unlikely to back the bill. But nothing is certain.

A Certain Slant of Light (CSL) and Numbers USA offer a convenient ranking of the 41 Senators who will be key to defeating the cloture motion. Contact your Senators and tell them what you think and then contact other Senators on the Numbers USA list and tell them the same thing.

Simply killing the cloture motion would be a victory in itself. A defeat for Frist would mean more debate, and that's just what's needed.

Here's what I've told my representatives: no Senator who votes for cloture will have my vote in future elections and, should the bill pass, only candidates who advocate its repeal will receive my support.

Republican politicians need to think about this NOW. There's been much talk in the media about Hispanic political clout. As Steve Sailer observes at the VDare.com blog, however, alienating one's base is a losing proposition. The much touted Hispanic vote, which has a long way to go before it materializes as a major force on the national scene in any case, shows every sign of voting Democrat.

In the meanwhile, the GOP establishment stupidly waits for the big Hispanic payoff. They'd better not wait too long. When the bubble bursts on this illusion, as it inevitably will, there may be no Party left to bail them out.