From the NYTs:
For the first time, Senate Republicans blocked a nominee of the Obama administration, mounting a filibuster against the appointment of David Hayes to be deputy secretary of the Interior Department in a dispute over oil and gas leases in Utah.
An attempt to force a final vote on Mr. Hayes’s nomination fell short of the required 60 votes Wednesday morning as Republicans stood nearly united against Mr. Hayes, a former Interior Department official during the Clinton administration.
Republicans were rallied to oppose the nomination by Senators Robert Bennett of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Senators said the cancellation of 77 oil and gas leases near federal parks in Utah showed the Obama administration was not taking the nation’s energy needs seriously.
“This is denying access to domestic oil and gas resources and making us more dependent on foreign oil and I think that is a really terrible idea,” said Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas.
Democrats said Mr. Hayes had nothing to do with the oil leasing decision and that Republicans were impeding Democratic efforts to make changes at the Interior Department, where some officials in the oil leasing branch were accused of corruption during the Bush administration.
“This was a tired vote of bitter obstructionism,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement issued after the vote. “It may be uncomfortable for some to watch us have to clean up mess after mess – from corruption to lawbreaking – that is the previous administration’s legacy at Interior, but to cast a vote against such a qualified person is the height of cynicism.”* * *
Turtle Talk 
Still puzzled why the Senate Majority leader would schedule a cloture vote when two reliable votes (all the Dems needed to win) were out of town. Senator Ted Kennedy (who is usually out due to health) also did not vote. Let’s hope Reid’s planning is better in the future if he decides to bring up Hilary Tompkins’ nomination for a cloture vote soon.