From CQ Politics, “Reid Seeking To Set Up Series of Senate Auto Bailout Votes“:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was working Thursday to set up Senate votes on alternative approaches to an auto industry bailout. But he wasn’t making much headway.

Reid, D-Nev., huddled with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky., attempting to work out a unanimous consent agreement on a limited number of full alternatives.

If that effort fails, Reid warned, he will make one effort Friday to proceed to a shell bill (HR 7005) that would be the vehicle for action, and toss in the towel if he is blocked in that attempt.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made his opposition clear in a floor statement this morning, listing his specific objections. He argued for an amendment sponsored by Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN).

Text of the Corker amendment is here. Corker made the case in a Detroit News op-ed today, “Loan conditions must fix automakers’ problems.”

The Senate “Gang of 10″ and specifically the GOP members came in for a thrashing last week from the Wall Street Journal’s Kimberly Strassel, a column, “Republican Energy Fumble.” In their desire for bipartisanship and ethanol subidies, they surrendered an important and politically advantageous issue, she wrote:

That’s because the plan is a Democratic giveaway. New production on offshore federal lands is left to state legislatures, and then in only four coastal states. The regulatory hurdles are huge. And the bill bars drilling within 50 miles of the coast — putting off limits some of the most productive areas. Alaska’s oil-rich Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is still a no-go.

The highlight is instead $84 billion in tax credits, subsidies and federal handouts for alternative fuels and renewables. The Gang of 10 intends to pay for all this in part by raising taxes on . . . oil companies! The Sierra Club couldn’t have penned it better.

The 10 eschew the term “raising taxes,” preferring to provide offsets through “loophole closures and other revenue measures.” (Last paragraph on summary sheet.)

Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), one of the Decadudes, takes strong issue with the analysis. He called Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit today to rebut Strassel and other critics (Investor’s Business Daily headlined an editorial “The Five Stooges” and Rush Limbaugh was rough, too.) Here’s the Senator’s case.

1. The “gang of 10″ bill unilaterally opens up drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, with no state veto. The GOP bill didn’t do that, because Mel Martinez and Charlie Crist didn’t want it. Non-Gulf states Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas can opt-in if they like; the old GOP bill was opt-in everywhere, allowing Florida to block drilling in the Gulf off of its shores.

2. The bill also allows for seismic exploration along the entire continental shelf.

3. The ban on drilling within 50 miles of the coast was also in the GOP bill.

4. Contrary to many commentators’ claims, the “gang of ten” bill is not a lifeline for Obama: “What a bunch of C-R-A-P. ” (Yes, he spelled it out like that) “If Obama embraced this, he would (continue reading…)